SPOILER Rebels Season 3 Ep 19 "Twin Suns"

Every single "Art of..." has been extremely insightful and definitely more than a coffee table book. Now if they only made prints of some of the work in the Art of Rogue One...

 

That very same scene was included at the beginning of the mid-season trailer but not in the original context - back then I thought maybe Ezra found himself alone in the Ghost by any reason we didn't know so far. But here it seemed it was any given night LOL.

Exactly! Back in the episode "Visions and Voices" we see Maul is even enslaved to one of the crimes he had committed - Satine - and with Kenobi's name on graffiti all over the wall LOL. Whereas Obi-Wan might have a lot of reasons to want Maul finished - he killed his master and his former love - but as you said, Kenobi has learned to let go, but Maul hasn't. In some way Maul's story is a tragic one - from reading about his origins and how both his former master and the Maker - Uncle George - discarded him. And it was beautiful since many doubted Kenobi would actually kill him, but if you notice, Kenobi only lighted his saber after Maul mentioned he was protecting someone, and the beauty of it is that to protect Luke Kenobi would even kill or get himself killed later on.

 

Unbelievable episode. THIS is the Rebels we want... not robots floating in space singing.

Great job Lucasfilm

 

I hope they explore the mind reading thing Maul did. It reminds me of both what Kylo Ren does and what Vader did during the last duel with Luke. I could understand Vader was able to draw the knowledge of Leia from Luke possibly because Luke didn't have the experience to block him or he was so emotional it was slipping out. It seems too specific for Maul to figure out that Obi-wan was protecting a person who he identified as the chosen one just from the fact Obi-wan was hiding, yet I can't imagine Obi-wan would be unable to keep Maul out of his mind. So many questions.

 

I'd think Obi-Wan was letting Maul in to let him know why.
Maul has no love for the Empire, the exact opposite actually.
So he's not truly a threat in ratting Obi-Wan out, should Maul have lived but not kill Obi-Wan. He wants both to perish.

His last words reflect that he understood what the chosen one meant for the Empire and Sith.

 

A few observations.

1) while Maul uses the same attack he used on Qui-Gon it's also worth nothing that when Obi-Wan changes his stance it is to Qui-Gon's style. Pretty cool.

2) The final duel with Maul was perfect. The next time you watch it pay attention to when Obi-Wan ignites his saber, it's when Maul says "Someone". I think what we are seeing here is the true power of Obi-Wan and his mastery of the force. His intent is deadly serious. He is not playing around and taking chances that Luke could be discovered. He is on a completely different level than Maul. Maul done messed up.... I'd also like to say that at no time during this episode or A New Hope is Obi-Wan out of control, he completely manipulated Vader and even though he fell it was his intention. Obi-Wan for me is the greatest Jedi of all time.

3) To the folks that want to see Chopper die you may have missed that he's in SW Rogue One so that's not happening in this cartoon.

4) Overall great episode but I could have done without Ezra and Chopper on Tatooine, Ezra was too easily fooled by Maul AGAIN and them being there seemed contrived.

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 20, 2017, Original Post Date: Mar 20, 2017 ---

Totally agree, we saw Obi-Wan as a fully realized Jedi and as such Maul was no match. When he took Qui-Gon's stance I flipped out. This episode helped highlight what I already believed, that the Obi-Wan we see in A New Hope was not a tired old man but an absolute master Jedi with power far greater than Vader's. He chooses to let Vader win and I think that if he wanted he could have easily defeated Vader. His time on Tatooine has obviously not been wasted.

 

Why do you think that? Why not win against Vader and lead the rebellion against the emperor if he could've?

 

Because of the stance he takes when Vader strikes him down, he does not try to block the attack but instead holds his saber up directly in front of him. It's pretty obvious he was ready to become one with the force and at the same time it provides Luke with the motivation he needs.

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 20, 2017, Original Post Date: Mar 20, 2017 ---

 

"You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

He becomes Luke's motivation.
He becomes one with the Force.

He's now more powerful than ever.

 

Seems like he hardly got to know or train Luke. They were together for less than 2 days. I always took that scene as Ben sacrificing himself to keep Luke from trying to help. Luke would've died if he jumped into the Fray. He didn't need to be a ghost to say "run luke run", but a living ben wouldn't have been able to shoo him away.

How is Ben actually more powerful than Vader can imagine? Seems like more of his "truth depends on your point of view" stuff. What does ghost Ben do that living ben could'n't?

Couldn't a living Ben say "trust the force luke" and "go train with Yoda on Dagobah"?

What does ghost Ben do that living Ben could'n't?

 

You may be right about why he lets his guard down (to keep Luke from the fight) but weather or not motivating Luke was his intent it was used as a motivating device in the story. It is odd that Obi-Wan would want Luke to hate Vader considering the nature of hate and how it effects force users. What ever Obi-Wan's motivations were he did throw the fight and if you watch the sequence he smiles when he sees Luke is watching so it seems to me he wants Luke to see Vader strike him down.

 

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Give Luke the motivation and belief in the Force to pursue training.
Sacrificing yourself for others is a hell of a motivator.

He's also now able to train Luke and communicate with him forever.
He was old and physically winding down. If he gave it his all and lost to Vader in ANH, he would appear weak and Luke's motivations would likely be different as we see in Empire...less of a Jedi reason more of a pure revenge....dark side stuff.

Essentially it gives Obi-Wan carte blanche over Vader.
I like to think Force Ghost Obi-Wan was harassing Vader about being a Force ghost while Vader can't be one.

 

I think that what Ben means is that he has attained what Vader seeks - life beyond death. It's a greater theological statement and because of Vader's fear of death, he can never truly accept it and overcome it the way Kenobi can.

 

If Obi-Wan truly believes Luke to be the Chosen One, then it makes sense he would trust that the revenge wouldn't over take Luke and in a way he is right.
IMO when Obi-Wan reaches Luke through the Force on the final trench run, Luke isn't in it for revenge any more and he knows Obi-Wan is okay.

 

I wonder if Obi Wan would have marked Maul's grave site or kept it secret for only his knowledge,

 

I really wish they had left the scene in. It seems an odd thing for a Jedi to sentimentalize death that way. I wouldn't be surprised if he burned him.

 

Agree.

E.K. Johnston portrays in such a beautiful way the internal struggle of Obi-Wan a few years after Order 66 in Tatooine:

Spoiler: Obi-Wan Interlude (Ahsoka book)

OBI-WAN REACHED and found nothing.
It took him a while to get to this level of deep trance, and now that he was here, he was reluctant to pull up, even though he had failed once again. There must be other things he could see, other Jedi he could find and possibly aid.
Images flickered across his eyes. Padmé, dying, with the babies beside her. Yoda, exacting a promise and giving him a new goal. Anakin, burning on the volcanic slopes of Mustafar, blaming him for everything that had gone wrong.
And it had all gone so wrong.
Now he was back in the place where his carefully ordered life had begun to unspool. Not the exact location, of course. The Lars family lived in the middle of nowhere, and it was a part of Tatooine where Obi-Wan had never gone until he had brought Luke to them. But it was the planet where his whole existence had been forever altered.
He’d gone to Shmi Skywalker’s grave to apologize for losing her son. He had never met her, knew her only from Anakin’s stories, but Qui-Gon had made her a promise and Obi-Wan hadn’t been able to keep it. As he stood there, looking at the stone, he felt an even deeper shame. Qui-Gon had left her there a slave, and Obi-Wan had done everything in his power to prevent Anakin’s return. It was only the love of a good man, here on Tatooine, that had saved her—the kind of love the Jedi were supposed to eschew. Yet it had done something the Jedi could not.
But that was the past. What he did now, he did for an uncertain future and for hope. He had trusted in the light side of the Force for his entire life. There was no call for him to stop now. He found the center of his meditation, the quiet place where there was no emotion, no resistance, no worldly bonds. He rooted his feet in that place and reached again.
Still nothing.
Obi-Wan shook himself out of the trance, more annoyed with his failure than disappointed, and found he was still sitting on the floor of Ben Kenobi’s house. It was sparsely appointed, only the basic necessities. He hadn’t been there long, but he got the feeling that even if he stayed until Luke Skywalker had a long gray beard, he still wouldn’t accumulate many possessions. Tatooine wasn’t that sort of place.
He stood up, his knees creaking in a rather alarming fashion. Surely he wasn’t that old yet. It must be the desert climate that affected him strangely. He got a small cup, filled it with water, and then returned to his seat on the floor. Something caught his attention, one of the few pieces of his old life that he’d taken with him to his desert solitude.
Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber.
It was all that was left of the man who had been, often simultaneously, Obi-Wan’s greatest annoyance, his brother, and his closest friend. If any other part of Anakin had survived, it was lost to evil and darkness. Obi-Wan couldn’t save him any more than he could save any Jedi who was still at large in the galaxy, trying to find footing in the new order. All Obi-Wan could do was make sure the child Luke survived to adulthood, and train him if he exhibited his father’s talents.
He wondered briefly how the daughter was faring under Bail Organa’s tutelage.
Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Down he plunged, through memory and dream. There was Commander Cody, handing him back his lightsaber only to blast him off the cavern wall moments later. There was Anakin, laughing as he made some improbably difficult landing, saving all their lives again. There was Ahsoka, her hands on her hips, her endless questions challenging him at every turn. There was Palpatine, as Chancellor, his disguise so complete that Obi-Wan couldn’t detect his villainy even when he knew where to look.
He made himself pass them all by. It was easier this time. It grew easier every time. That made his heart hurt, to think he was so fickle that he could turn his back on them to achieve his own ends. When he thought it, he heard Yoda, reminding him that his work was important, that he must focus on the future alone, obscuring the past and even ignoring the present if he must. He had to break through.
He reached the bottom again, the quiet place where his doubts, loves, and fears were gone.
Then he realized it wasn’t the bottom, not quite. There was another level below.
Obi-Wan let go of Ben Kenobi’s house, the last place in the galaxy where a piece of Anakin Skywalker rested, and broke through the wall between life and death.
It was dark there if he wanted to take anything with him or leave anything behind, but he wished for neither of those things, so he stood in the light. His senses were sharp. He could hear every sound at once, and also none of them. It took him a moment to focus on the voice he wanted most to hear.
Alone and connected. Aloof and hopelessly entwined. Obi-Wan had only a moment before he was wrenched back into the physical world, but it was long enough to renew his hope.
“Obi-Wan,” said Qui-Gon Jinn. He was sure the voice was stronger this time. “Let go.”

From this interlude, you can understand why he was in a different place by the time Maul appears again in Tatooine, and why he refuses to take a more active part in the Rebellion. He is aware of the bigger picture, the Force and how he could keep protecting the kid in some way.

 

Agreed it should have shown his body burning in the distance when he was approaching the Lars homestead. Still a sand burial was honorable enough, I still can't believe it.

 

It took the fall of his apprentice and the entire Jedi order for Kenobi to attain that sort of wisdom. He fails so completely and he learns from it. It's on Tatooine where he becomes a true Jedi Knight.

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 20, 2017, Original Post Date: Mar 20, 2017 ---

I agree. Or just a shot of him traversing the desert on his dewback, the pyre in the distance. It would have been nice iconography, a great throwback, if he had stayed to watch Maul burn the way he was there for Qui-Gon.

 

Some random thoughts, many of which have been touched on already:

The Chosen One
Regardless of who is or who is not actually the Chosen One, Obi Wan believes Luke to be at this point, or that is at least the truth as he is making it. Whether he later realizes anakin was the chosen one after all (if he actually is) is irrelevant, because at this point in time there would be no reason for him to think that anakin is the chosen one.

Just because a character says something doesn't mean they are correct, and it doesn't mean they are speaking to the audience, or speaking in plot points. Kenobi is speaking his current truth at this point in time.


The Duel
The quickness threw me off at first and was taken aback at the boldness of such a quick fight, but now I cannot imagine it being drawn out. I absolutely love it - with one glaring exception.

I am frustrated by how ambiguous his wounds were. I didn't see them on the first two viewings, then after reading posts here talking about smoke coming from his torso I watched more closely. After Kenobi's downward strike, you can see a vertical slash down the left side of Maul's chest, that is slightly outlined in red. You can see it again when he collapses. He was definitely struck down, but it was way too subtle: my girls (and frankly I as well) were confused as to what happened. Upon first viewing (probably for everyone) it looked like he split the blade only, which is a shame - it should not take 4-5 play/pause views to begin to see what actually happened! I get Disney is staying away from too much violence, but they could have made it just a bit more obvious. I do love it, but am frustrated that I had to be willing to watch it a few times to realize how good it was.


Ezra in the wrong place
Yoda and Kenobi know about Ezra and Kanan, and specifically do not want them involved directly - they have a different place in their strategy. I love what this implies and how these masters of the Force may have been thinking on multiple levels, not solely on killing the Emperor & Vader. This one scene sets the tone that what was said on Dagobah should have no bearing on Kanan and Ezra - they are not throwing every Jedi they can find at Vader - they have a specific plan for Luke vs Vader, and it doesn't involve Ezra.

All of this bolsters my theory that they could keep Ezra (and maybe even Kanan) alive into the OT years, without it causing problems, especially if their "place" is far away by that time. Having a manner for Yoda & Obi Wan to have a "second team"


Kenobi and the Rebellion
I love, love, love that Obi Wan is officially thought dead at this point in the timeline by the Rebellion, and only Bail knows the truth. This is the link that leads to contacting Kenobi in Rogue One & A New Hope, and not before. Bail told everyone Kenobi is dead to protect Luke. Mon Mothma knows at some point prior to Rogue One, and maybe we will see her learn this info via Ezra in a future episode. Either way, I like that his secret seems to be kept by a very small group of people all along.


Twin Suns, Twin Moons
Maybe this is too petty, but it bugged me that they carried the "twins suns" visuals into the nighttime as well with having two of Tatooine's moons so prominently showing through the majority of the nighttime shots.