SPOILER Season 3 EP. 19-20-21: A SINGLE STORY ARC FROM S. 2 X18 ENDED. AND WHY BENDU NEVER WAS THE GRAY.

Excuse me if it will take too long, but I think it may be worth it.

This is an attempt to explain:
1- How the last 3 episodes of Rebels's season 3 (Twin Suns and Zero Hour) closed a story arc
that started in SEASON 2 ep. 18 (Shroud of Darkness), ì
had a turning point in SEASON 2 ep. 20-21 (Twilight of the Apprentice)
and another pivotal development in SEASON 3 ep. 03 (The Holocrons of Fate).
2- What GREY in the Journal of The Whills quote means if not (as I always suspected) DARK+LIGHT, BENDU, etc...

SEASON 2 ep. 18
Kanan, Ezra and Ahsoka reach the Jedi Temple on Lothal, to get advice on how to defeat the Inquisitors.
Once inside the Temple:
- Kanan faces again his fears: not being a true Jedi and not be able to instruct Ezra.
At the end, the Guard gives him the official rank of Jedi Knight and by implication the responsibility over Ezra's instruction.
- Ahsoka faces her guilt: a manifestation of Anakin asks her why she left him when he still needed her. He says she abandoned and failed him.
Finally he asks Ahsoka if she knows what he has become. Ahsoka realizes he's now Darth Vader.
- Ezra meets Yoda. This is pivotal moment of the episode and the "true" beginning of this story arc.
But to really understand why, first we have to focus on Ezra questions.

What he wants to know is:
E.- You must know a way to destroy Vader and his Inquisitors.
Then Yoda talks about war.
Y- Thousands of the Jedi, once there were, then came war (...) consumed by the Dark Side the Jedi were. The Clone Wars misled the Jedi.

Many believe that here Yoda admits the corruption inside the Jedi Order led them to extinction.
Which - I believe - is a misinterpretation of his words.
Yoda is saying that The Clone Wars were not the result of the Jedi's corruption, they were the cause.
In fact, as we should know and remember - they've been planned (and for a long time) by Palpatine to achieve this goal: to corrupt the Jedi understanding of the difference between the desire to do the right thing and how to do the right thing (take a note of those words).

The Jedi failed because they did not understand the threat the Clone Wars were.

Yoda talks about it, because he is warning and teaching Erza not to commit the same mistake.
In fact:

E- Was it wrong for the Jedi to fight? (...) How we are supposed to win if we don't fight back?
Y- Win, win? How Jedi choose to win the question is.

But then

E- We've already chosen, we're going to fight.
And since they've already chosen, Yoda pauses and only then he adds
Y- Hum.... find Malachore.

But why Malachore?

That's the question our heroes will ask themselves even after Malachore (see - for instance - season 3 ep. 2).

The thing is... they - and we the audience - should have already known/understood why.

SEASON 2 ep. 20/21

E- This whole planet is a riddle.
K- If it is a riddle, what's the question?

But Yoda had told Erza. Remember? "How Jedi choose to win the question is"
And that was the question (or the answer to the riddle).

Yoda sent them there, because that is a place where

Ahsoka - (...) at one time, thousands of years ago, Jedi Kights attacked the temple.
E- And the Jedi won, right?
A- From what I can tell nobody won.

= Yoda wanted them to understand what Jedi don't have to do to win.
Or - as he said - how they have to choose to win.

But as told, they don't get it. They don't get it at all. And that's their fatal mistake.

E- If Malachor is off limits, then why did master Yoda send us here?
K- I don't know, but I trust master Yoda, there's something for us.
E- Yeah, something that will help us stop the Inquisitors
A- Knowledge
(...)
E- Ahsoka, you said we're here to find knowledge. What kind of knowledge?
A- The forbidden kind, to defeat your enemies, you have to understand them.

As far as I love Ahsoka, she's simply totally wrong.

And it's not coincidence that her words are similar if not identical to those of Maul, here:

Maul- You came for the same reason I did, years ago, you seek knowledge
(...)
M.- To defeat your enemy, you must know your enemy. Even practice their beliefs.

Erza and Ashoka get "seduced" or better say "deceived" by the seek of knowledge (and knowledge = power, as the sith voice will tell later Ezra).

Ashoka is also deceived - till (sorry) death - by becoming compassionate with Vader's (not Anakin's) motivations.

From the meeting with Anakin's manifestation on Lothal, she feels guilt. [Ep.2x18]
But questioning herself she belittles or denies Anakin's (own) responsibilities.
That was his choice. No matter what, he still had the choice to act differently.
And above all, she keeps on staying on a middle ground (as Bendu, but we will see this better later on).

She's not a Jedi: she thinks they've betrayed her and maybe Anakin too somehow.
She's sure there's another way.
She's not even afraid to seek forbidden knowledge.

And those are all mistakes Luke will never commit.
He will stay true to Anankin Skywalker and the Jedi way.

Luke: "I accepted that you once were Anakin Skywalker, my father"
"That (Anakin) is your true self"
He does not think - never - "perhaps my father had some good reasons to do what he did".
He's not interested in that.
He's only interested in let Vader go to get Anakin back.

And more than everything, Luke will say:
"I'm a Jedi, like my father before me" before refusing to fight him.

That's the total opposite of Ahsoka.
V: Revenge is not the Jedi way
A: I'm not Jedi.

Kanan, is the most reluctant on following and siding Maul.
But he's deceived too, by - again - guilt and revenge.

M - "Are you such cowards that you would run [that's what we know he did during Order 66 = guilt]
from this chance to defeat your enemies? Who slaughter your friends [= revenge]?

But what is the outcome for the 3 of them?

- Ahsoka... well: even if she didn't die, nothing good happened to her.

- Erza starts getting closer to Maul. He will stay on the dangerous edge Light/Dark till Twin Suns episode.

- Kanan gets blind being hit by Maul just after the evil lord says for the first time that Erza is now his apprentice.
That is the connection with Ep. 2x18.
Kanan is failing on teaching Erza, because he "trusted" Maul.
And he did so because despite being officially named a Jedi Knight - something he could not get before because of Order 66 - he still feels guilt and incomplete because of Order 66.

I also think that blindness is a plot choice much more symbolic than many of us have figured,
that will lead us to the meaning of GREY which is not what many of us have speculated.

BENDU AND KANAN

I don't think BENDU = BALANCE = the GREY the JOURNAL of WHILLS speaks about.
(I'll tell you later what my guess is about the JOFW'S quote).
I understand why many have thought so, but I don't think that's the case.
And it's not coincidence, Bendu never says so.
So I'll take what Bendu only says to define himself: he's the one in the middle.
As Ahsoka, from a certain point of view.

Interestingly enough, one of the first thing Bendu does is to confirm what we and our heroes should have already understand.
(that's because the writers wanted us to know we're still in the same story arc)

BENDU: "An object cannot make you good or evil. The temptetion of power, forbidden knowledge [references to Ep. 2x20-21] even the desire to do good [reference to TWIN SUNS - Obi Wan to Ezra] can lead someone down that path".

Full circle: from Yoda in the Temple on Lothal, to Malachore, to Twin Suns.

BENDU: "Only you can change yourself" (that's what Ahsoka did not understand about Anakin).

However, we still have to understand why Bendu is introduced in this story arc
and in that of Kanan more precisely.

First, I guess we all can agree that being one in the middle, does not mean Bendu is a bad guy.
In fact he helps Kanan who's now blind and questioning again himself for not being able to be a good master for Ezra.
Bendu helps Kanan to see things differently.
But to do what? That will be answered only by Season 3 Finale.

But the main reason is another.

Another pivotal moment in this story arc, is SEASON 3 ep. 03 "The Holocrons of Fate".

Given what happens in that episode I ask you:

if Kanan asked for Yoda's help or advice (instead of that of Bendu),
do you think Yoda, could ever know what Maul wanted to do with the 2 holocrons?
I doubt it.
It takes someone with a knowledge in the middle (Bendu) or an heterogeneous one (as that of Maul, for his origins) to know it.

But let's say Yoda had know it:
Do you think he (Yoda) would ever told /allowed Kanan and Ezra to reach Maul?
To do what Maul wanted them to do?
Not at all.
That is not the Jedi way.
That - more than anything - would have been totally out of Yoda's character.
That's the main reason - from a storytelling point of view - the writers had to introduce Bendu:
to tell this story arc keeping other characters (Yoda, Kenobi) coherent to what we know about them.
Not to build the Grey plot.

The other reason is Kanan himself.

The turning point of his life was Order 66.
And though in Ep 2X18 he's got the chance to stop feeling guilt, incomplete (as a Jedi)
and thus incapable of being a good Master,
because of his fail in SEASON 2 FINALE he's now exactly were he was before.
And blind too.

He does not know what to do. Or what is the right thing to do.

He is one in the middle not as Bendu, but in another way:
he does not fully trust/understand the many ways of the Force.

He does not understand - to say it better - the Will of the Force has many ways.
He does not understand there's a destiny, a role to play, a part for him too and/or what that destiny, role, part may be.
So he stays in a limbo.
Bendu's introduction allowed Kanan to face the one in middle inside himself.

CONCLUSIONS

EZRA & TWIN SUNS:
That is the end of Erza's journey.
For him, everything started from the questions he asked Yoda back in episode 2x18

E- Was it wrong for the jedi to fight (...) how we are suppose to win if we don't fight back?
Y- Win, win? How Jedi choose to win the question is.

He's now receiving the final piece to learn the lesson.

E - We can fight him [Maul] together
Obi Wan - I had no intention of fighting him, though that seems inevitable now [= Jedi only fight when is inevitable]

And more than everything:

E - " if I had what I needed, why would the holocrons send me to you?"
OW- "They didn't. Maul did. Maul used your desire to do good (= same words as BENDU) to deceive you". (-> see Ep 2x20-21)

And then
OW: "In doing so he (Maul) altered the course of many things
(... he) has led you here, where you never have been"

That to me means not only that Obi Wan is protecting Luke,
he is also saying to Erza what he will say to Luke :
"Your destiny [if referred to Erza, that non altered by Maul's actions] lies along a different path than mine".

Erza path's being going "home", staying with Kanan and the others.
Whatever the Will of the Force is, Erza's part shall be played next to Kanan.
That's what he already had (to do) and that's all he needs (to do).
But of course he had to learn the difference between
the desire to do good and how to do the right thing.
Only knowing this difference, a Jedi can choose how to fight.

KANAN & ZERO HOUR

The dialogue Kanan/Bendu proves Kanan has finally overcome his weakness and came out from his limbo, definitively.

B- Did you think it's chance this world is so difficult for you to find?
K- No, but maybe we were meant to find it and meant to find you too (...)
= the Force has ways we cannot see at first (= blindness).
But a Jedi must trust the ways of the Force.
And everything that happened (at least from Ep. 2x18) taught Kanan that.

B- I'm the one in the middle...
K- Look I've tried to live that way once, told myself the galaxy will go on with or without me.
But when I saw innocents harmed and knew I had the power to do something about it I couldn't just watch it all burn down around me, some things are worth fighting for (...) help us fight
B- I will not fight your petty battles.
K- You'd rather hide. Like a coward.
reference -> again to himself during ORDER 66
and to -> Ep.2x21: that's how Maul deceived him.
But he now knows what do, that this fight is the right fight
and that he has to trust the will and ways of the Force.
He see things differently.
He now sees.

Then, Bendu says:
B- Perhaps it was the will of the Force that the Jedi and all your kind perish and I serve the will of the Force.
But Kanan, does not trust him anymore. Or he just does not agree anymore, because: he is a Jedi.

Those are in fact Kanan's last words (to Erza) closing the episode:
K - I understand you feel defeated [as he did after Order 66], but I've learned to see things differently.
There's a future for us, one where we're all free. But it's up to us to make it happen.

SO: WHAT'S THE GREY?

I said, Kanan blindness is a plot choice much more symbolic than we may have got.
But to explain what the GREY the Journal of the Whills speaks about is,
I think - and I've always did - we have to go back to the Yoda's Arc on TCW.

More precisely to what Qui Gon's ghost says

"(hope) it often comes in forms not looked for".

That is GREY: the forms not looked for

Speaking to Yoda in that moment: the birth of Luke and Leia
and possibly even Anakin turning to the Dark Side.
In Kanan's case everything that happened to him after Order 66.

GREY may also be what hides those forms not looked for.

If as Q.G. ghosts adds: "the key is knowing how to see it"

GREY are all those events that made particularly hard to see where hope or on the other hand a threat - like during the Clone Wars - may lie.

GREY it's when Light and Dark are so close, it takes a deeper understanding to see the difference between them.

And it may not be enough: maybe it takes only the faith in the ways of the Force
That's what Yoda and Obi Wan have to learn more than they always did. Same as Kanan.

Let's compare Qui Gon's words

"the key is knowing how to see it and seizing that opportunity"

with the JOTW's quote

"the DIFFERENCE (Light/Dark) is only MADE RIGHT by (... the) REFINED JEDI SIGHT (= those who know how to see it)"

Meaning: Knowing how to see that difference
a Jedi gets a new and more accurate sight: a REFINED SIGHT.

That sight can "seek the opportunity in the forms not looked for"
(or a threat, where it was not supposed to be)
On doing so, you RESOLVE (as one may resolve a problem, a riddle, etc..) and NOT BECOME, the GREY.

Finally, given how much this refined Jedi sight is important, to resolve the grey:
do you really think Kanan's blindness was a random plot choice?
Not at all.
But something that taught him how to see things differently
= how to overcome/resolve the grey.
Not how to become grey or that grey is the solution.

End, for now.
Let me know what you think.

EDIT: Grammar (as much as I could)

 

Thank you

 

Great take! Excellent

 

Back here just to say that what Kanan says in Season IV trailer, seems to be absolutely in line with what I suggested above.

There is a path, a task, a master plan the Light Side is working on since the PT era.
How the Jedi chose to win the question is.
They were not meant to face and fight Sidius.
That was the Chosen One's task through grey.... events.
But forces of light had to remain to guide him (and Luke, and the rebels), to do what they did to help the
C.O. to accomplish the final goal in the rigtht moment.

 

Thank you. Too kind.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you

 

@Stormagadon and @Bosc thank you!

I've just found this quote of GL (it's from a 1983 interview)

"The third [trilogy will] deal with moral and philosophical problems,"
"In Star Wars, there is a very clear line drawn between good and evil.
Eventually you have to face the fact that good and evil aren't that clear-cut
and the real issue is trying to understand the difference.
The sequel is about Jedi knighthood, justice, confrontation, and passing on what you have learned."

I guess this confirms what we're saying here. Words are almost the same.

Gray = when good and evil (light and dark) aren't that clear cut.
A refined Jedi Sight must understand/see the difference

Now, since here we all seem to agree on this point...
The questions are:

1- What's the gray Luke must resolve in the ST?
2- Whatever it is - given the references with the TCW serie and REBELS - do you think it has to do with something that is connected
to the PT and or the OT era? Or someone that's playing a role since then?

1- I don't have any idea... not a good one.
2- I guess it could be the case. The Aftermath serie seems to push into that direction.
The Dark Force calling for Palpatine may be the connection.
Snoke may be its embodiment or someone close to it.
That would also explain why he knows what happened in the throne room..
And I guess it would be a great way to connect everything: same tale from EP. I to IX
But I'd really like to know what you think about it and your ideas.

 

@Alex Sebire Can't see the image!

One could say that Luke acted like... Bendu. Not taking side, being out of the sight. I don't know, maybe that could be a thing.

In fact:

About the 'grey'... my 2 cents are on the chance that it is somehow related to the Balance and to the C. O. prophecy.
The idea itself of Balace was introduced because of the C. O. prophecy.

But the Journal's quote doesn't speak about the C.O., it speaks about the Light, the Dark, the Grey.

Well... what if Luke and Ben Solo interpreted those words as many of us have done?
Grey = Balance = end of Sith and Jedi

And thus they're dealing with Anakin's true legacy?

What if that's why Luke says "the Jedi must end" and Kylo says "I'll finish what you've started"?
Those may be two different ways to say the same thing: there must be no more Jedi and/or Sith
Anakin/Vader came to end them both.
Luke is just resigned, because... he's still a Jedi.
Kylo is angry. He blames his uncle: it was his fault.
And maybe it's not coincidence that people in Lucasfilm have hinted that Kylo and Snoke are not Sith.


But then, Rey arrives: she's the ray of light shining to make clear the difference, to resolve the grey.
To make Luke, Kylo/Ben - and we the audience - understand that the meaning of the Journal's quote is different than it seems at first.

Something more likely to what we said above, to what our conversation in this thread suggests and that the next movies will better explain.

Something like this, would connect the overall story (from ep. 1 to ep. 9):
The C.O. came as Anakin Skywlaker (PT), but he needed Luke (OT) and now (ST)... we'll finally understand what Balance etc... really mean.
And as you suggest, it would be personal. At least for Luke and Ben/Kylo.
Because it would "resolve" the true legacy of Anakin Skywalker too.

And I guess it fits with the teaser poster too...