#as well as the key to destroying the sith for ezra

[aq2003]

i'm so happy for you buddy :]

#my brother pointed out that the holocrons showing tatooine (obi-wan and luke) was both hope for maul #as well as the key to destroying the sith for ezra #man. MAN ????? #stars war #maul hinging his entire purpose on revenge as the galaxy comes crashing down around him #he can't hurt the person truly responsible for everything he went through (sidious) so he goes after obi-wan #knowing obi-wan is alive gives him hope. or what he thinks is hope. bc finally he feels that revenge again #and later when obi-wan kills him he gives him that actual hope that sidious will be destroyed #idk i have SOO many thoughts about this

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "Through Imperial Eyes"

Spy antics, infiltrations, and endless stress holy crap.

Obligatory live reaction version. Be forewarned there's a lot of incoherent screaming in that one.

IIRC from the Rebels Recon for this episode they had briefly considered doing the whole episode as a POV shot from Kallus, which would have been cool and interesting and very artistic as a narrative decision but which they probably realized very quickly would have been a crapton of work they'd never finish on time.

So a bit of a compromise with this opening shot here, still getting across the pun, as we are literally looking through an Imperial's eyes.

Poor man looks exhausted.

They still haven't started strip mining the planet surface just yet. That wouldn't happen until right when the factories were ramping up production in preparation to start shoving TIE Defenders off the line.

So Thrawn literally had his funding pulled last minute. No wonder he was so cranky in the finale lol.

Lyste has put the light carrier on full red alert for a stolen shuttle. Not the first time he'll be flaunting his authority this episode.

Hi Ezra!

Straining the limits of Kallus' poker face already lol.

Love this little uncertain look before he takes the opportunity to sass that Stormtrooper.

Troopers once again just bullying around a teenager for no reason. Ezra's literally their favorite target for this, even when the others have gotten captured they aren't manhandled nearly as much.

I mean, not that I'm complaining or anything...

I do remember thinking that this seemed a rather dangerous course of action, and it's a bit at odds with the events of "The Antilles Extraction". Despite Ezra's reassurances to Kallus that most troopers don't actually know what he looks like now, he still has a pretty recognizable face. That was why they sent in Sabine the last time.

Buuuuuuuut Sabine's not here anymore. And they can't exactly send in the aliens of the group either. Rex and Kanan could have infiltrated by themselves though. So why exactly is Ezra sent in alone with just Chopper and AP-5 as backup?

He must have insisted on being involved in the extraction plot, like he couldn't have been for Skystrike, for the same irrational emotional reasons--because his sense of hyper-responsibility means that he will deliberately take on the most danger in order to prevent any potential harm or hurt coming to the people he cares about. It has to be him, because if he takes all the risks, no one else has to, and no one else will get hurt.

This loops back into his guilt over Malachor. Ezra's been projecting his shame and fears about Maul, about his failure there, onto everything else. He's still a bit prickly and suspicious towards Kallus several times this episode, not willing to trust so easily again and repeat his mistakes.

"I have to do this, I have to destroy the Sith and fix my mess, I have to protect my friends." Ezra's been trying to take on way more than he can actually handle, and it's gotten him in trouble multiple times this season. At Reklam, when he leaves himself for the last to get out and winds up stranded and plummeting to his doom. In the krykna cave, when he insists on going in alone without Kanan and nearly gets mulched. On Dathomir, when he nearly winds up possessed by Nightsister spirits, just to get a hint at the "key to destroy the Sith".

And here, where things very nearly go completely pear-shaped due to Thrawn unexpectedly turning up, and Lyste hoping to present Ezra as a bid for the Grand Admiral's favor.

I'll talk more about this character arc, as I've said, in "Twin Suns" when we get to the end of it.

For now let me just enjoy the hysterical strain in Kallus's voice as he bitches about being rescued. David Oyelowo does "shrill and full of stress" really well.

I love this expression so much, he cannot comprehend the Rebels risking so much just for him it's so sweet.

Despite his complaining, Ezra looks very ready to maybe trust Kallus, look at this face.

Feigning prisoner mistreatment shouldn't have worked as well as it did but lajhafksfjhkjh this is the Empire.

Thrawn conveniently turning up right when the Rebels have made a move again. It's uncanny how the man can do this. It never felt like normal narrative contrivance it always held just a bit of uncertainty and paranoia about it all.

So yeah ONE THING THIS EPISODE DOES REALLY REALLY WELL IS AMP UP THAT SUSPENSE AND TENSION. I was so anxious watching this the first time, pins and needles, it was effective but horrible.

Ezra with that brief fearful flash of, "Ohhhhh crap, we did not plan for this."

Knew from the moment we panned down to Ezra's helmet on the floor there with that brief music box snippet of Thrawn's theme that it would come into play.

Ezra's hidden cheeky smiles at AP-5. <3

And a nice little callback to "A Princess On Lothal".

See, this is what I'm talking about there's literally no reason to smack his head here, they're just being petty and mean.

Love the subtle worry in Kanan's eyes here. <3

Hi Brunsen! Hi Titus! Hi Slavin!

This moment here in front of the door serves two purposes effortlessly. First, it lets Lyste kick the dog by pulling a Karen on this poor guard, so we're not as sad when he's framed for the Fulcrum deal later. (Though I was still a little bit sad, he was pitiful and didn't deserve that.) Second, it establishes the obstacle we're going to have to overcome later.

....All right, fine, the Thrawn girlies can have one cap.

I'm pretty sure this music cue is a carryover from TCW.

God the fondness and admiration in Kallus' voice at seeing Yularen, ouch. This is a man he used to look up to and now he's betraying everything his old mentor stood for.

Right, so obviously showing them the map was a ploy, but it's wonderfully clever of him. Thrawn likes to throw curveballs at his opponents to see how they react and adapt. He develops the same kind of villainous respect for Kallus that he has for Hera, though more to do with how Kallus outmaneuvered him in the mind game and spy espionage thing.

Kinda dig that Pryce wasn't in the previous meetings because her loyalty is without question.

Also yes, I do crack!ship it a little bit.

Oh hey, the moment that inspired my "Mirrorverse" AU!

Will never not laugh at Kallus' tired, "Please stop that." at Ezra on the ceiling of the cell.

It's kind of astonishing how good Ezra looks in Imperial outfits. Really too bad his interactions with Kallus are limited because they bounce off each other in one of the most interesting and entertaining ways.

"Oh good, the thankless job." AP-5 is the best and I will hear no slander.

I was... unclear on how exactly the decoy planet was supposed to have fooled Thrawn. Still am, a bit. Surely the man has a photographic memory, right?

But then maybe that was one of the things that pinged him as being too clever for Lyste to have done.

Hilarious that Kallus managed to pull a Stealth Hi Bye on a Jedi.

This scene is so well done in the tension department. The cloying silence. Thrawn calmly walking in to check the map. The sudden attack from the sentries with a flare of dramatic music. Ezra feeling like he's just barely hidden out of sight behind the retaining wall. (Once again, symbolically using Sabine's artwork as a shield, I mean what?)

And props to Thrawn, he does really well surviving against his own sentry droids. I'm down with letting the man have a little physical combat to show off his athletic prowess. As a treat.

And I dig that the override code is his bodyguard's name. :)

This expression is delightfully chilling. The man is seething.

Another episode which does a good job handling Kanan's blindness, Kanan has to ask for clarification on what Rex is "Woah"ing over and he doesn't recognize Pryce by voice so he doesn't know not to try the Mind Trick on her.

And again, the competence of other Imperials increases dramatically with Thrawn merely present. Yularen immediately finds a shuttle asking to dock right after an assassination attempt fishy. Pryce tries to arrest them immediately and recognizes the attempt at a Jedi Mind trick. Thrawn makes people smarter just by being in the room.

My girlboss just straight up Thunderdome-ing it with Rex here. I love that she's so physically tough and brutal. <3

Lyste still would have gotten in trouble for stunning Pryce here, just saying. That bit of idiocy is all on him.

Awww a snippet of the "Shenanigans" cue!

Like I said, Lyste is kind of pitiable here. I wonder if they ever let him go, at least for the "treasonous spy" thing.

Kallus you're playing it up just a little too much here, my love.

Gods, it's just instantaneous, all he has to do is look at the helmet for a second and he recognizes, "That's Sabine Wren's work."

And then immediately draws the line from "Sabine Wren painted this helmet." to "Clearly it was done for Ezra Bridger to wear."????

See, even Thrawn can tell how close they are and how important they are to each other. He must have noticed from, idk, security holos or something that Ezra likes to wear things that Sabine's painted for him.

Thrawn sounds really smug here, I think he'd long suspected Kallus for Fulcrum and is gleeful at being right.

He's such an arrogant prick. "That's why you've been deceived." oh shut up you pompous ass just because you're super smart doesn't mean you need to be condescending about it.

And the "Thrawn's Web" organs to close us out. Nice.

*points inarticulately*

This episode! Many much good! Stress! Espionage! Cat and mouse mind games! Ezra peril! Did I mention the stress?

Hhhhhnnnnnghhh I love this one so much, it's my favorite of the season, just barely eeking out "Twin Suns".

It's all hits from here, baby. (Maybe? I don't actually remember "Double Agent Droid" that well I don't rewatch it often. We'll see.)

#star wars #star wars rebels #ezra bridger #agent kallus #grand admiral thrawn #rebels rewatch #liveblog #cute boys in peril

[sacreficied]

TOMMY MARTINEZ // have you met KANAN JARRUS yet? HE is a THIRTY-THREE year old TRANS MAN HUMAN. they’re originally from CORUSCANT and now show loyalty to THE JEDI ORDER. they are best known for being a REBELLION FIGHTER, and i hear they’re pretty COURAGEOUS yet also DISTRUSTING at times; i hope they survive the galactic civil war. (APRIL, 24, EST, SHE/THEY)

THE PAST

kanan jarrus, born caleb dume, was a jedi knight who survived order 66 during the clone wars. living on thanks to the sacrifice of his master, depa billaba, on kaller, he met the smuggler janus kasmir, who taught him how to survive as a fugitive. going into hiding, he abandoned the jedi ways for some time, swapping his blue-bladed lightsaber for a blaster. after working with the rebel operative hera syndulla during the gorse conflict, jarrus decided to join their rebel cell.

as syndulla's second-in-command, the two came to develop a romantic relationship. after the force-sensitive teenager ezra bridger joined the spectres, jarrus became his jedi mentor despite still perceiving himself a padawan. after defeating the grand inquisitor in combat, jarrus and his fellow rebels learned they were part of a larger rebellion and joined phoenix cell. during a mission to malachor, jarrus was blinded by the former sith lord maul. after months of retreat, jarrus restored his connection to the force and repaired his frayed relationship with bridger with the help of a mysterious being called bendu, who taught him to see things through the force.

kanan and his fellow rebels continued to fight various adversaries including imperial grand admiral thrawn and maul, who sought to corrupt bridger and destroy obi-wan kenobi, the key to destroying the sith. regaining his confidence, jarrus also taught sabine how to wield the darksaber and helped her to rally the mandalorians over to the rebel cause. as the rebel alliance escalated its struggle with the empire, kanan and his fellow rebels returned to free lothal, a world which they had a special connection with.

jarrus eventually met his death on lothal around the year of the battle of yavin, during the rescue of hera syndulla after governor arihnda pryce ordered her walker to fire on the fuel pod they were on, sacrificing himself to allow his fellow rebels to escape.

THE PRESENT

it was a fiery explosion, a painful death, and yet it was not the end. near the beginning of 7aby, kanan woke up once more on the planet of lothal, a half-day’s trek from the nearest city. he quickly learned that the galaxy had been liberated from the empire and there was a growing new republic, as well as rumors of a reforming jedi order. he quickly sought out to find out what was going on with the jedi and reunite with ghost crew.

PERSONALITY

before hera, kanan was reckless, impatient and belligerents. prickly and detached, he showed his kindness only when he thought no one was looking,and his only aim in life was survival. hera persuaded him to join her to fight for a lost way of life—to work as a rebel leader, for which he resumed his lost qualities of bravery, honor, and perseverance. having felt adrift since the destruction of the jedi way of life, he had developed a cynical and cocky personality,[9] and couldn't stand "protocol nonsense." he was also known for humorous banter. for many years, he lacked confidence about his jedi abilities and was haunted by his master's lost. however, during a lightsaber duel with the sentinel, a manifestation of the grand inquisitor, kanan realized he should feel content with teaching ezra all he could, and to his surprise, he was knighted by the sentinel.

losing his sight had a great impact on the kanan's life and worldview. he withdrew from his responsibilities to meditate in the force. due to his upbringing, kanan distrusted anything associated with the sith and dark side and chastised ezra for toying with a sith holocron. under the tutelage of the bendu, kanan learned to see through the force, overcome his fears of the spider-like krykna, and repair his strained relationship with ezra. by repairing his relationship with his rebel friends, kanan was able to regain his connection to the force.

#enjoy the shitty stuff copy/pasted from my mumu xoxo #which was a shitty copy/paste/edit from wiki xoxo #galactics.intro

[lo-55]

Tilt The Hourglass Ch. 4

Mustafar was exactly as Maul remembered. 

Sidious had even put him in his old room. One with no way out. No key pad by the door, no latch for the windows, and the vents filled with toxic gas to knock him out if he tried to hard to escape. It was meant to keep even the most powerful of forceful children inside. 

Maul hung from shackles above an anti-grave platform near one wall. He was facing the window now, showing him his own body and the black shorts he’d been left in. 

He stared at his reflection. At the floating boy outside the window. The one he’d wanted to be for so long. The one that was free.

Free of electric whips and punishments, free of expectation. That boy had no shackles, nor lessons, nor cold, unfeeling droid to raise him. He could fly away into the lava fields if he wanted. 

Maul met that boy’s eyes with his own yellow one. They weren’t tinged with red yet. 

How strange. 

For all he’d spent most of his childhood in this one locked room Maul had no fond memories of it. All of his fond memories were of people, not places. They were the blood, sweat, and tears of a well fought battle. They were his brother at his side and power at his fingertips. They were careful hands of Kilindi and Daleen smearing bacta on his damaged body. 

None featured his master. He had learned that the ‘kindness’ he doled out was nothing more than another way to manipulate Maul and ensure his loyalty. 

 Sidious’ droid paced the room. It held an electro-staff tightly in one hand. Every now and again, without warning, it would strike at him and shatter his chain of thought. Maul snarled at it. He’d tried to crush it on impulse once, but the shackles cut off his connection to the telekinetic powers of the Force. 

At the very least they didn’t keep him from working on his mind. 

Deep in the dark ocean of his memories he was pushing pertinent information down, and down, past the water, past the floor, and into lava that burned at the heart of his very being. He had to keep those parts of him guarded before anything else. 

The droid struck him across the face and Maul spat out one of his eye-teeth. Blood still filled his mouth. All he could taste was copper. All he could feel was pain. Every now and again his muscles would spasm with residual shocks. 

Unbidden, a passage from a medical book flickered through his brain. 

Long term effects of electrocution and electronic torture include, but are not limited to, muscle spasms, memory loss, pain, tingling, numbness, and personality disorders and changes. This makes long term, and high grade electronic torture innefective for gathering information. Instead-

A hiss signalled that the door opened. 

In walked Sidious, his cloak billowing around him dramatically. Inefficiency had never stopped him from shocking people. Maul personally thought he just enjoyed inflicting pain. 

A lightsaber hummed in his hand. 

Sidious came up to him and gripped his chin. Maul snapped at his fingers with sharp teeth, for all the good it did. 

“You’re a fool, Maul, and a failure as a sith. Once you would have made a powerful apprentice. You could have been great at my side. But you chose sentiment. Your future, thrown away for a pair of girls who will never be anything more than ants.” 

He drew the tip of the lightsaber down Maul’s side. It was turned up high enough to burn, but not cut into his ribs. Sidious wouldn’t end things that fast. 

“Better them than you,” Maul spat. “You stole my life-” 

“Silence,” Sidious thundered, slapping him across the face. Maul’s head spun. Had he ever heard the man raise his voice? Maul had truly enraged him. A sliver of satisfaction curled in his chest and Maul bared his bloody, gapped teeth at him in a grin. 

Sidious gathered himself visibly. Maul had never gotten such a rise out of him. The minor, phantom vengeance tastes like blood. 

“You have never pushed me so far,” Sidious said, his voice slow and sickly kind. “I have never had you disobey. I can be persuaded to forgive, if you do as I told you. I have no doubt you can hunt the slave girl and her little pet down again. You could kill her, and come again to my side.” 

Maul wanted to laugh in his face. Did Sidious think it was kindness? Did he think Maul was foolish enough to prostrate himself before the sith Apprentice and bed for a life without future, without fraternity or friendship? 

Of course he did. 

Maul would have once. Sidious knew as much. Once he would not have hesitated to do his bidding. His only disobedience would come from misplaced eagerness and bloodlust. 

Now, Maul spat blood in his face. 

Sidious ripped through his already ragged outer shields once more. He lanced through Maul’s memories of Orsis and picked them apart. Each test, each challenge, and more than that, his time with the girls. 

Kilindi, bumping her shoulder to his. Daleen, carefully stitching a cut upon his brow. Kilindi touching his arm while talking casually. Daleen gripping his elbow and shooting over her shoulder as he led her through their portion of the test course. 

Every brush of skin, every kindness, ever inch of camaraderie between them and each small show of care. Sidious hunted them down like a dog and all Maul could do was give them to him, and spin his hurt around the depth of his being, away from his impossible truth. 

He gave him Kilindi. He gave him Daleen. 

In return, Sidious burned the memories across his skin. Every place he’d felt gentle fingers or joking shoves Sidious struck with the heat of the lightsaber and burned deep into his skin. 

There was only pain. The taste of blood. The scent of burning flesh. 

Darkness swirled across his vision. Maul welcomed it. He focused on his uneven heartbeat under the pain. Maul drew the pain and the anger inside of him and closed it around his heart, first one, then the other. He drew inside, inch by inch, bringing every agony with him. 

The Force swirled through him and Maul forced it to slow, and finally still. His body went limp. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t hear. He couldn’t feel. 

The taste of blood was gone. The smell of his body burning vanished. 

Only the Force remained. 

It did not like being still. It was a fight for Maul to keep it like that, suspended inside him. Shadow consumed him, and he welcomed it. 

The Force showed him what happened, in the distant, blurry way of visions. 

Maul’s body went limp. He wasn’t breathing. Sidious struck him harshly across the back, where Kilindi had once rested against him with her ankle twisted. He’d carried up a mountain, and still beat the other team there while she shot each challenger who got within range. 

Sidious defiled each of those memories with pain and fire. 

Finally, he stopped. 

Sidious circled the limp body of the boy he had raised. Blood dripped lazily to the ground and his body smoke faintly. 

“I expected more,” Sidious said, frowning at his ‘corpse’. “You always had potential. I raised you to be better. What a waste of time.” 

The shackles were deactivated and Maul’s body crashed to the ground. One ankle twisted wrong and made a terrible snapping sound. The body didn’t move. 

“Dispose of him,” Sidious ordered. 

The spider legged droid that had once raised Maul, now reconstructed for some new purpose, crawled into the room and picked up the child it had brought up from infancy. The body was small and broken in its cold metal hands. Sidious left, and the droid took Maul to the ship that would dispose of waste that day. One hand hand fast to his throat.  

The vision ended with the droid running cold fingers across Maul’s brow and tucking him carefully into the ship's ventilation shafts before it closed up the grate and erased its own memories of ever finding a pulse. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Maul came to to the scent of rot and blood. 

All there was was darkness and for an instant he was back on Lotho Minor, surrounded by garbage and rotten waste. Half a person, he is even less than that, and the blood he tastes is a rat he’d dragged in and a body that the snake creature had fed him. They were both mad, shrieking, and consumed by the world of fire and destruction. He was no one. He was a broken creature of hatred-

His ankle screamed in pain and Maul gasped into awareness. 

He still couldn't see, but he could feel the pain in his ankle. He had his legs still. He was not on Lotho Minor, buried deep in darkness and forgotten. 

He was on the ship that the droid had placed him inside of. His head still swam with his near death. 

It was one of the many things that was in the Sith holocron he’d recovered with Ezra, and one of the only remaining things after its destruction. A suspended animation based in the darkside, it, like all things, took its tole on him. 

Not just his suspension, he realized. It was a fever too. His body was always warm with two hearts, but now it was burning. 

Maul tried to move. It wasn’t just his ankle that hurt, but every burn was festering in spite of cauterization. How long had he been out? He’d been woken by the ship jolting and the Force hissing warnings of danger into him.

Maul drew the pain inside of him and spun it into the steel of strength. Slowly, he crawled through the vents he’d been sheltered inside of. He tried not to think of the TD-D9. He’d tried not to think of him for a long time, after his destruction. It was easier to hate him for the torment he inflicted than to remember the fond friendship between them. He’d mourned him, in his own quiet way, after Deenine was destroyed. He’d done his best to protect Maul from his master, even if he was too young to really understand. 

Maul quietly swore to one day return for his friend. 

I’m getting greedy, he thought. What will I do with three friends? 

The vents were winding and small, but Maul was small too. He made his way to the cockpit, where another familiar face was. The droid pilot that had once dropped him off on Hypori, for his finally test for Sidious. Maul turned his gaze to the window. 

They’d dropped out of hyperspace into the middle of a firefight. Maul recognized some of the ships as belonging to pirates, trying to board, and their ship had been hit in the crossfires. Alarms kept flashing red lights on the console, and the droid was frantically trying to send a distress signal. 

Maul watched the pirates tear away from the ships they’d been foolish enough to go after. 

Why they thought they could take a full assault craft was beyond him. 

Maul’s fuzzy mind couldn’t recognize the design painted on the side, and he barely registered that he spoke the language that came over the communicator. 

The droid squeaked it’s need, and it’s cargo. They had left most of the waste behind, somewhere, and though the ship still stunk of it. Now they hauled back raw materials for building. 

Maul crawled away from the droid, his dizziness increasing when the ship shook with a boarding ramp. He stumbled. He needed to find the emergency med pac that was on the ship. Sidious kept them on all of his craft. It was…

Fuck. 

It was somewhere. 

Maul dragged himself through the shafts, the world getting more and more blurry. His tongue kept poking into the new gap in his teeth. He didn’t think he made a sound, but he must have because someone shouted underneath him and a blaster bolt shot into his shoulder. 

Maul howled in anger and pain and the shaft, with the boy inside, collapsed to the ground. It hit with a crash that jarred every burn and break in his body, and a crack from his ribs was telling. Someone was shouting, but he didn’t register words, only the threat behind them. 

He lunged out of the wrecked vent and tackled his assaulter. His hands found their way around his throat as the body, hard and cold against his bare skin, fell back to the ground. The blaster went skidding across the ground. Maul was shaking. He was angry and cold and everything hurt but he would not allow himself to die now. 

His small hands closed around the throat and he started to squeeze. 

All at once he was flipped onto his back and he screamed. All the lights went out. 

There were hands on his shoulders. 

“Sshhh, ade, there’s no fight here,” the voice was quiet, muffled by a helmet. Maul bit the wrist nearest to him and nearly shattered his upper teeth for his trouble while the lower ones caught on the thick material of a flight suit. He was shaky and weak, the fever and adrenaline warring inside of him. The Force still muddled him with near death. 

Maybe it was Mando’a that made him ease his teeth out of the flight suit on the underside of the vambrace. Maybe it was the hum of the Force, muddled but reinforcing the idea that he wasn’t in danger. 

Back up lights kicked on in the ship, flooding the area in dim red light. It still revealed enough of him to made the mandalorian hiss through his teeth. 

“Who did this, ade?” the anger in his voice was almost enough to make Maul fight him again, but the Force encouraged him not to. There was no danger here. 

“Mas-ter,” he croaked, his voice hoarse and his throat bloody and raw. 

Anger radiated out of the Mandalorian and Maul drank it in, trying to use it to clear his head. His body was having none of that. Now that he wasn’t in danger of dying it was forcing him to stop fighting. To rest. To heal. Or he really would die. 

“There’s no master here, ade. I’m going to pick you up. Don’t go biting me now.” 

Maul did his best to scowl at the mandalorian, but he couldn’t figure out which one to glare at. Four of them blurred in his vision. The hands that picked him up were careful, but there wasn’t anywhere to hold him that wasn’t injured. The festering wounds on his back burst and leaked across the blue painted armor. 

Maul was swept into a fevered sleep by the time they reached the mandalorian ship. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

 Jango sat beside the cot in the medbay while the droid circled the boy he’d brought back from the transport ship. He’d blown the thing up as soon as they were off of it, an impulsive choice he regretted now. 

If he’d kept it, maybe he could have found out who the ‘master’ that had done this was, and where to find him. 

Low rage simmered deep in his chest, and it only mounted the more the droid told him. 

There were the obvious injured that Jango had seen on the transport when the boy had nearly fallen into his lap. The blaster bold that, much to his own shame, Jango had put in his shoulder was nothing compared to the rest of the damage. 

His whole body was covered in injuries. Both plasma and electric burns made a horrific pattern across a body that was already mostly covered in tattoos. There were so many that Jango almost couldn’t tell if he was red with black tattoos or the opposite. 

Most of the burns had half healed, but there were many, especially the ones on his back, that had gotten infected. A fever was burned through his body, keeping the boy unconscious as much as the drip of chemicals attached to his arms. The droid had gone through most of their boosters just trying to purge the infection from his system. 

Jango wished he had a bacta tank to submerge the child in. He couldn't be more than a decade old.  

Jango rubbed the back of his neck, where little fingers hadn’t been able to close all the way around. There were distinct hand print bruises on his throat. The boy was a fighter, that was undeniable. 

He had been for a while, if what the droid said was to be believed. He had broken an ankle and a few ribs, but there were healed fractures all across his body, some years old. One of his floating ribs was twisted in a way that indicated that it had been damaged before it had even been bone yet. There were scars all across his body.  

The abuse had been going on for a long time. 

It made him sick. 

Jango steepled his fingers and leaned forwards with his elbows on his knees. He was lucky, this boy, if only in that Jango had even answered the distress call of the droid, and hadn’t accidentally put a bolt between his eyes when he’d been in the vents. An escape attempt? 

Jango wouldn’t put it past him. The boy fought like a feral-tooka, and he bit hard enough he’d actually put a dent in beskar. Jango could respect that. 

One thing he couldn’t get out of his head was the way the entire ship had shut down, lights blown and fuses exploded inside walls when the boy had screamed. Jango had an unpleasant history with jetii, and the near miss on Galidraan didn’t help anything. There was no denying that this kid had the Force. Was he jetii ade? Had they managed to misplace one of their own? 

Jango had a lot of questions on the matter. 

None of them had answers yet. Jango finally left the medbay to let the droid finish covering the boy in bacta so he could check the autopilot. They would be landing in Coruscant in another two days. He would ask a few allies if any jetii ade had gone missing, and hopefully get the zabrak some proper medical treatment. 

Then he could meet up with his friend, and current contractor, and get started on a job that he could feel was going to be more complicated than it was on data pad. 

Weren’t they always? 

Jango sent a message to Silas explaining the situation as well, just in case more needed to be done, and so he could look into any reports of a zabrak that matched the description. The rest of Haat’ade were out on similar jobs. Something quick that paid well. They needed to gather their resources and amass more money. 

Galidraan had been close. Closer than Jango would have liked. Even with the warning that their mysterious benefactor that sent them, Jango had decided that it would be best to spring the trap. He’d been smart enough to have the bulk of their forces hidden and waiting, just a brief hyperspace jump away from the planet. They had intended to round up the Kyr’tsad on the planet and put an end to the war, but the jetii had gotten in the way. His forces had gotten out with minimum damage, and only a couple of casualties, and they’d dealt a vicious blow to their enemies. 

Vizla had still gotten away. He’d hidden behind his own men, and then the governor of Galidraan and his jetii allies as well.  

Hut’tuun. 

If Jango could face him in a straight fight it would put an end to everything, but he was slippery. He always managed to find a way out of a fair fight. His hit and run tactics were brutal. He’d be forced to lay low for a while after this, now that his forces had taken such a hard blow, and now that Jango knew he wasn’t above manipulating entire planet’s to get Jango he was vetting jobs more intensely than ever. 

The only reason he’d taken this one without hesitating was because he owed Clat’Ha for getting him off a dustball when they were teenager’s and he’d managed to wreck his already stolen ship. 

Jango leaned his head back on the pilot’s seat and watched hyperspace blow past him. 

Not for the first time did he long for Jaster back. He would have known what to do about the little ade in the medbay. Jango had a good idea, but the jetii aspect complicated things. 

Well. 

If the jetii couldn't keep track of their ade that was hardly his fault, now was it? 

Jango grinned to himself. 

For all his anger that the situation he’d pulled his little guest from, it wasn’t all bad. Once he woke up they could work out what happened next. 

#Darth Maul #Maul #time travel #jango fett #darth maul time travel #tw; violence

[clonetrooper1403]

STAR WARS: DUEL OF THE FATES (Personal version)

I´m piss off!

 Some days ago I said that Rise of Skywalker was not as bad....but that was before to know they rip off this master piece!

 Seriously, the original script, written by  Colin Trevorrow was AWESOME! PERFECT! THE EPIC FINALE THIS TRYLOGY NEEDED!

 So I´m going to talk about it, adding a little lines of my own and my personal little headcanons, so this post will be long.

 Why? Because I can, because I want and because this is internet, so it means I can do whatever I want! If you want to be like me and accept this, you are welcome, if you are not happy and want to write toxic comments, screw you and close this post, I´m doing this for me, not you.

So, the movie start like this:

 So, We see a First Order star destroyer being assault by the resistance. Blasters and bombs everywhere.

 Stormtrooper 1: Blast them!

 Stormtrooper 2: Sir! We are losing the third sector!

 ST 1: How many enemies?

 ST 2: Just one, sir!

 ST 1: Are you losing against one rebel?!

 ST 2: Is not just a rebel, sir! Is THE GIRL!!

 And then, BAM!

 We see Rey with her new dark Outfit and her new blue double blade lightsaber, build with Luke´s broken sword and her old staff.

 The resistance steal the entire ship and, after a couple of scenes of First Order high ranks argueing we see Corusant, this time used by the Bad Guys as Capital city.

 This time they use a gigant citadel-like ship as HQ meanwhile the old city is full of scavengers and poor people, trying of survive under the iron fist.

 We see the First order is executing in public a traitor pilot called Bisc Kova, the one who was the key for the rebels to steal the star destroyer.

 Then we see that the actual leader of Corusant is Hux, who is now Cancellor.

 After a meeting with other high ranks in the first order we see Hux´s private colection of lightsaber, he doesnt fight with or use them, is just a symbol of power.

 Somebody ask about Kylo Ren and Hux answer that is in a mission to increase his power.

Kylo is showed in Mustafar (like TROTS) but this time is chased by Luke´s force ghost who is trying to convince him to return to Leia But he refuse very angry, in fact, he try to attack Luke´s ghost with his crossguard red lightsaber only in order to be stopped by the ebar hand of the master with an eyebrow rise like “really n*gga?”.

Then Kylo found a sith holocron with Palpatine´s message for Darth Vader, saying that if Luke kills him...Vader must take him and develop him to Tor Valum, One of his dark sith masters who teached a lot about dark force mambo-jambo during his years as ruler of the galaxy.

But then the holocron scan Kylo´s face and realize is not Vader, so it explodes, burning his face.

Then We see the resistance on planet Koralev with its new Star Destroyer, a funny scene where Rey use his force mind control on some troopers and an argue between Rey and Finn.

 Finn: You said you saw him again on your dream, right?

 Rey:  ...

 F: Stop thinking about him.

 R: I need to save him Finn, I saw it...Ben still can return to the light

 F: It´s too late for him, Rey

 R: Is never too late for change...you are the living proof.

 Then both are summoned in a meeting, the resistance has a plan.

 They want to use an old beacon under the Jedi temple on Corusant to send a message of hope and cheer them to rise in arms against the First Order

 After that Rey go to train in a cave with Luke´s Ghost, in there Rey tell him that she is not sure about being a Jedi...after all, Darkness consumes Light and Light extinguish Light...a no-end cycle of death and reborn.

On Corusant again, we see Kylo melting a mandalorian armor and creating a new mask direct in his face, much more dark, sinistre and evil-like.

Kylo argues with Hux, telling him that titles, positions and destroying planeets are nothing against what he is going to get, showing that Hux Is just a puppet under Kylo´s fist and giving the redhead a last order: Find the resistance and destroy it...but leave the girl to me.

And before leave Corusant again, Kylo talks with Vader helmet in his room before smash it in hundreds of pieces.

 “Now I understand you...you let love make you weak”

Then the resistance start the plan: Finn, Rose, Leia, BB8, R2-D2 and C3-PO travel to corusant in order to prepare the beacon and start a riot

Rey, Poe and Chewbacca travels to a world in order to find someone who helps her with that force mambo-jambo she feels.

The first Order arrives to the resistace´s base but all are able to scape.

Finn´s team are able to arrive in corusant and activate the beacon atthe same time Leia record her message On Corusant in order to rise the fighting spirit, but Finn also prepare another message as a “surprise”

But then Troopers discover them and force them to run in to the low levels of the planet-city, killing Leia in the process.

 Meanwhile, Kylo arrives to the sith planet (just like he arrives in to Exegol in TROTS) and meet Tor Valum.

 The sith master begins Kylo trinning and force him to fight a Darth vader vision (Just like Luke inside Dagobah´s tree faces Vader) in an epic and violent duel between red lightsabers that Kylo loses.

 Meanwhile, Rey, Poe and Chewie arrives the planet where Poe´s grandpa lives (with a very strong smugger vibre), a water world full of boat-like ships.

In there Poe´s grandpa take them to an alien seer who read Rey´s mind and make her some kind of “Stelar map” that can be use to find Kylo (In here it is showed that Rey and Poe are in a relationship, but I dont like that so...f*ck it)

 But then, SURPRISE! The Knights of Ren are there! They have been following Rey´s team all this time! A dinamic chase in the port that end with a hand to hand battle betwwen six dark warriors vs a jedi, a wookie and a guy with a blaster.

On Corusant after seeing an emotional inspirational message from Leia to them from R2, Finn, Rose and the droids start a riot in the low levels and free plenty of prisioners.

 Heck, even 3PO kills a assasin droid using a blaster! saying “Oh dear! How uncivilized!”

 After starting the fire, Finn and Rose have a talk.

 Finn: Well...that was a good start.

 Rose: Yes, but we cannot do much with a bunch of mad scavengers.

 F: Well, It will have to be enough. Is not like we can arm all these guys.

 Rioter 1: Actually...

 *Finn, Rose and plenty of Rioters in an elevator going to lower levels*

 Rioter 2: People forget Corusant was once the Imperial Capital City

 Rioter 3: And they left more that a few emotional scars in here.

 The rioters show them a hangar (now without guards) with hundreds of old imperial AT-STs that soon start to arm and paint in a more “Rebel” style that would make Sabine Wren really proud.

In that moment 3PO and R2 see the surface of the planet, so sad and empty, seeing the first order HQ in the sky.

 C3-PO: “R2...Do you think we can win another war?”

 R2-D2: *BEEP BOOP*

 C3-PO: “You are right...at least they don´t have another Death Star...I´m tired of those kind of things”

With Rey, Poe and Our Favourite Wookie. The girl decide to keep going alone because is something she needs to do, Poe refuse but in the end agree so the boys get back with the resistance and Rey goes to Planet Mortis when she meets Kylo ren, just after she faces a giant alien beast.

 On Corusant the battle starts and thousand of AT-STs start to blast the stormtroopers, but here is Finn´s surprise. A massage to all the Stormtroopers! encorage them to fight back for what they know is right.

 Plenty of stormtroopers then start to shoot against their commanders and, without their helmets, join the rebels.

 Hux, seeing all that chaos on the battlefield, order to the star destroyers in orbit to shoot against the rebels and the traitors, destroying the old city without care about civilian damage. But then another surprise.

 Hux: Here is Cancellor Hux! Open fire in the low levels and wipe out those rebels and traiotrs!

 Officer: We...We can´t do it, sir! We are under attack!

 H: What?! The rebel fleet can´t be enough to face ours!

 O: They are not just the rebels, sir!

 H: WHAT? HOW MANY?!

 O: ALL OF THEM!

 H: HOW MANY SHIPS, OFFICER?!!

 O: ALL OF THEM, SIR!!! ALL OF THEM!!!!

 Then is showed in Orbit How all the ships that heard Leias message arrive (just like TROTS)

In there we can see Lando, (of course) the phantom, the Mantis, The Mandalorian´s ship, Hondo´s Ship...etc. But a first look to some familiar faces as Bossk, Dengar, Cad Bane, Embo, the gungans, the wookies, Jacen Syndulla, Sabine and Ezra (if he is found) etc. and Chewy and Poe with others in star fighters and X-wings.

 Meanwhile, on the surface the rebels face their final obstacle: gigant new walkers,, the final charge arrives, but one blaster hits R2! Without knowing about all the chaos who is surronding him, 3PO cry and show plenty of dark emotions before grab a blaster and star shooting Stormtroopers.

With Kylo and Rey, they fought in a vicious and powerfull way. During this battle, Kylo confess her that it was him who killed his parent by Snoke´s orders  and, takinG adavantage of her rage, is able to blind her with his red lightsaber (just like Maul did with Kanan) but she is able to fight using the Force.

On Corusant Again, the rebels start to enter in the HQ and the fleet is being destroyed by all the alliance ships. Hux is seeing everything from his office´s window at the same time he is receiving dozens of desesperate calls from officers and troopers asking for orders...but without answering them and with death calm, he takes one of the lightsaber of his colection (actually, Vader´s Lightsaber, don´t ask) and after kneel in front of his window, seeing all the chaos and explosions and watching several star destroyers falling apart from the orbit...he does seppuku.

Kylo, after defeating Rey and ready for kill her is visited by Luke´s ghost again...and after denie him again, Leia and Han are showed as ghosts too (a talk kinda like TROTS) The redemption is done and Kylo use every energy he has and heals Rey, dying in the process. In here Kylo also says Rey´s family name: Solana, Rey Solana.

Rey becomes an avatar of light and shadows and faces Tor Valum, who was just another creation of Palpatin....a desesperate device to fool Vader in order to bring him a body able to posses (all this in not in the script but, screw it, i liked it seen palpatine again without the family relationship fanfiction thing) So Rey with all that “I´m every jedi” thing and after ACTUALLy seein force ghosts like Qui-gon, Obi Wan, Ahsoka, Mace Windu, Ki Adi Mundi, Aayla Secura, Luminaria etc. Strike pure-white forse lightnings in to Palpaties puppet, destroying him.

We have a happy celebration, Chewy recives his medal, Lando highfive hondo, cute ewoks, funny gungas, even Jar jar is in there, doing silly things and making people laugh. And Poe found Finn and both kiss.

Oh, and R2 is back! Chewy repaired him and 3PO laugh in front of him before start to argue again.

The final scene shows a farm with Rey in meditation and with a blindfold, lisening how a bunch of kids are traning with stiks the diferent combat forms. This is the new generation of jedi, jedi who will defend no light, no dakness but balance.

 -----------------------------------------

 And there it is, MY canon...if I do more fanart I´ll probably will do with this content...Do you like it? good, Do you hate it? sorry to hear that. Now is time to wait untill clone wars final season.

#star wars episode IX #duel of the fates #star wars script #my headcanons

[arwenkenobi48]

Love Thy Enemy ~Chapter 11~

Here it is, people. The grand finale. I’m gonna tag a few people I think might like to read this. @maulsapprentice, @khara-chan, @xiamei-sami, @grand-admiral-asshat, @conscientiousmonster, @inthepurplefog, @sunsetofdoom, @caddycrystalqueen, @discorded-reality, @maylovely and @mechanicalanakal <3

Ezra’s P.O.V.

My shuttle left hyperspace just above the atmosphere of a planet that seemed lifeless even from space. If Maul was down there, if he was still alive... I just knew I had to find him and get him off there. “Don’t worry, Maul,” I whispered out loud, my fingers creating little rings of steam as I pressed them against the glass of the cockpit. “I’m coming.”

Suddenly, a loud clanking noise from behind me almost gave me a heart attack. I turned around and saw Chopper himself right there! “CHOPPER!” I shouted. “What?” He grunted. “You know what!” I snapped, furious that my astromech had stowed away. “How did you get here!?” “I was built,” He replied, playing dumb. “I mean in the ship!” I gritted my teeth impatiently.

“I wanted to keep you safe,” He shrugged. “I didn’t want anyone else to be involved,” I insisted. “Not this time.” “Why not? I can take care of myself,” Chopper ‘smirked’. “Yes, I know,” I sighed. “You know what, you’re in. Whether you like it or not.” “Cool! So, where are we going?” “I don’t know,” I said thoughtfully. “Yet. Wherever Maul is, I guess,”

I picked up a piece of the Jedi Holocron. “Ok,” I whispered. “Maul, Master Kenobi? If either of you are down there, show me something.”

Maul’s P.O.V.

I sat with my back against a large shelf of rock, my legs drawn up against my chest and my face buried in my knees. I felt exhausted. I would have fallen asleep if the biting cold of Tatooine at night hadn’t kept me painfully awake. “Ezra,” I spoke aloud, hoping I wasn’t alone. “Can you hear me?” No answer. I felt my lip tremble a little, not just from the cold.

That was when I felt it. Ezra, he was right above me in a ship, approaching where I was. “Ezra, follow me,” I whispered, knowing he would be able to sense me. “I’m over here. Just keep going.” Why is he here? Is he after me? Doesn’t he realise he could get himself killed? Tatooine is just as dangerous at night as it is during the day. Ezra may not be my apprentice, but I’m not going to let the desert claim him.

Ezra’s P.O.V.

As I tried hard to sense something, I heard Maul’s voice. “Ezra...” “Maul?” I spoke aloud. “Follow me...” The Holocron pieces suddenly began to glow blue and lifted into the air, pointing the way like a compass. “Chop, bring us around, north by north west,” I called. The ship turned in that direction. Suddenly, the Holocrons stopped moving. “Chopper, bring us down.” I said. The ship landed in a small, wide chasm. “We’re close now,” I said confidently.

I strode on ahead, Holocron in hand. I could tell Maul was nearby. Suddenly, the blue light from the Holocrons turned red and I saw a fragment of the Sith Holocron at my feet. “What the...?” “Ezra, run!” Shouted a voice. I looked up and saw Maul’s silhouette for a brief second before he ran away. “Maul? Maul! Come back!” That was when I heard the scream.

Maul’s P.O.V.

As I watched, a group of tall humanoids, their heads swathed in bandages and dressed in long robes, drew out weapons. One of them shot at Ezra, who ran back to his ship. “Chopper! Get out of there!” He yelled. The droid flew out of his ship and they both ran away, just as the Sand People blew it up. I drew out my lightsaber and ran towards them. “Ezra, stay back!” I called. The Sand People back away from me, screeching in terror. If any of them lay a finger on him...

I killed them. Each and everyone. I didn’t regret it. They’re like animals and should be slaughtered like animals. Ezra and his droid both hid behind a boulder. Ezra was shaking in terror. “Maul...?” I sheathed my lightsaber and helped him to his feet. “You shouldn’t have come here, Ezra.” I said. “But I had to! You called to me.” He protested. I sighed, looking at the ground. “I didn’t expect you to answer,” I admitted.

There was a brief silence. “Tatooine is too harsh a planet for you, Ezra,” I said eventually. “I’ll help you survive the desert if you lead me to Master Kenobi.” “Why are you after him?” He asked. “You’ll see.” I replied, managing a small smile. I dare not tell Ezra my true motive, or he will undoubtedly try to stop me. I’ve had enough of being stopped. I’ve had enough of suffering. But it will all be over soon.

Ezra’s P.O.V.

We walked in silence for the remainder of the night. By morning, we were approaching the edge of the Dune Sea. “Well, Ezra, can you sense him?” Asked Maul, sounding a little shaky. I couldn’t blame him. I picked up the Holocron/compass, which was pointing straight towards the sand. “Master Kenobi’s out there.” I said. “But crossing the sand seems like a bad idea.” “Especially for droids,” added Chopper. “At this point, there is not good or bad,” Maul replied softly. “If Kenobi is ahead, then forwards we shall go,”

With that, he walked unsteadily towards the sand dunes. I sighed. “Between yo and me, Chop, I have a very bad feeling about this.” “Come, Ezra!” Called Maul. A horrible cold feeling had entered my stomach, but I followed anyway, with a reluctant Chopper in tow. There’s a sense of finality in Maul’s words. Whatever he’s planning to do out here, I have a horrible feeling that Master Kenobi won’t be the one who’s in danger.

Maul’s P.O.V.

During our trek across the Dune Sea, a sandstorm whipped up. At first, it was only minor, but after ten minutes or so, I couldn’t see a thing. I couldn’t see Ezra either. “Ezra!” I shouted. “I’m right here!” Ezra’s voice called from my left hand side. “Can you sense him!?” I called over the roar of the wind. “Yes! But I can’t see a thing! I can’t go on like this!” He coughed a little. “If we cannot come to Kenobi, let him come to us!” I replied. “Draw him out!”

I’m still uncertain as to what happened after that. Ezra’s shouts became fainter as I staggered about in the sandstorm, until it finally passed...and I found that I was alone. My throat was dry with sand and my body felt as frail as a piece of paper. I drifted listlessly across the sand. Presently, the ghost of a voice called my name. “Kenobi?” I called. “Ezra? Savage?” The voice seemed to overlap with others, all repeating my name. My strength failed and I sank to the ground, motionless.

For a few seconds, I thought I was dead. I felt like I didn’t weigh as much as a feather. Nothing mattered any more. That was when I saw a familiar face. Mother Talzin. “Mother...?” I whispered, trying to reach out. “Son, you will not die like this,” She said. The figure before me began to change, but before I could work out who it was, it vanished. A final burst of strength entered my body. Slowly, I stood up...and saw the forms of two figures riding a large dewback in the distance ahead of me. Summoning up my willpower, I followed them, the twin suns setting on the horizon.

Ezra’s P.O.V.

I awakened beside a campfire. The sky overhead was sprinkled with stars. I couldn’t remember anything at first, but then it all came back to me. Where is Maul? Where’s Chopper? Who saved me? There’s a hooded figure beside me. Is it Maul? No...it’s not. It must be Master Kenobi. The old Jedi master looked up from the fire, his pale blue eyes staring into mine. “You’re in the wrong place, Ezra Bridger,” he said, an admonishing tone in his voice. Beside him, Chopper grunted happily and a large lizard like creature flickered its tongue in and out.

“Master Kenobi?” I managed to say. “I am,” he said. “And once you have your strength, I will help you on your way,” I was confused. “On my way? No, we came here to find you.” “We?” He repeated. “Yes, I was with someone else who was searching for you.” “Maul?” He asked. “Yes. How did you know?” I asked. “One doesn’t survive as long as I have without being foolish,” he said.

“I came here not only to find you, but to find Maul as well,” said Ezra. “Did you, now?” The old man seemed curious. “Now why would you seek out both me and my old adversary?” “The holocrons told both of us that you were the answer; our key to destroying the Sith.” Kenobi looked like he was thinking hard. “That is only a partial truth.” He said. “I myself am not the key to destroying the Sith, but someone I know is.” “Who?” I asked. “That, I cannot say,” replied the Jedi. “He must remain sheltered until the time is right,”

“The Rebellion needs you,” I said. “We need you to defeat the Empire.” “What you need, you already have,” he said. “But you seem to be letting it all go,” “Maul and I wanted different things from the Holocrons,” I said. “I wanted to defeat the Sith, but Maul said he wanted hope. Those two things seemed to lead us straight to you,”

“I see,” Master Kenobi stroked his beard thoughtfully. “I fear that your idea of hope, Ezra, is very different from Maul’s idea of hope. His life has been nothing except misery for him. Now I fear he may seek to end it.” “What!?” I gasped, my heart missing a beat. “Why would he still try to find you, then?” Suddenly, a voice spoke from behind me. “To finish what I have started.” It said.

Maul’s P.O.V.

I stood there, listening to Ezra and Kenobi talk, taking in every single detail of the moment. I would treasure every moment I spent with them until my last breath. Kenobi turned to look at me. He placed his hand on Ezra’s shoulder. “You must go,” he said. “No, I can’t.” He protested. “I must mend this old wound,” replied the Jedi.“Master, I know something about Maul that he doesn’t. He won’t harm anyone once I tell him.” Ezra pleaded. Kenobi nodded, understanding him.

I approached them, lightsaber in hand. “Look what has become of you, Kenobi,” I smirked. “A rat in the desert,” “Look what I have risen above.” he replied. “I had no wish to fight, though that seems inevitable now.” “I will make this quick, Kenobi,” I said, drawing out my blade. Kenobi pulled out his own. “It will barely be a fight. One fell swoop in it will all be over soon.” I could see Ezra standing nearby, his large blue eyes filling with tears. Don’t weep for me, Ezra. Forget me. I’m no good for you. I raised my weapon and prepared to strike.

Ezra’s P.O.V.

“Stop!” I shrieked, desperately forcing myself between the two of them. Maul’s lightsaber grazed my shoulder and I gasped in pain. “Ezra, what are you doing!?” Maul exclaimed, horrified that I had stopped him and that he had hurt me. “Maul, you mustn’t do it!” I protested. “I have to finish this!” He insisted. “Even when I do lose, at least it will be to a worthy foe.” “Do you hear yourself!?” I shouted tearfully. “You’re signing your own death warrant! Is this the hope you were searching for, Maul? Huh? Using Master Kenobi to end your own life, alone in the desert!?”

“Why are you still trying to save me!?” Maul shrieked, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Because I know you!” I protested. He stared at me in disbelief. “Maul, I’ve known you for so long now! I’ve felt your pain. I’ve seen you in my dreams. I can’t let you do this! All those months ago on Malachor, I trusted you! And I trusted you because you were every bit as frightened and bewildered, yet as strong and determined as I was! I looked at you and I saw myself!” Maul was listening now and he had sheathed his weapon, much to my relief.

“I looked at you and I saw myself.” I repeated quietly. “I saw what would happen to me if I didn’t find something - or someone - to heal my pain. So I decided I would try to save you.” He was looking at me with more of a grim curiosity than anything else. “You don’t need revenge or hatred or anything like that. It won’t make your life complete. You lost half your body because of it. You can start again.” He looked at the sand beneath his feet. “It’s too late.” He whispered.

“It’s never too late.” I replied softly. “I care for you every bit as much as you care for me. And I promise, I will accept you and I will never, never shut you out.” He sighed softly. I gently held his hand. It felt like the right time to tell him this. “Even after everything you’ve done, I promise. I will be there for you...Wild.”

Maul looked at me. His jaw dropped. His body trembled. “What did you call me?” “That’s your name, isn’t it?” I smiled. “Your real name. The one you had before the Sith tried to take away your life.” “My name...my name...” He whispered. “W-Wild... How...how did you know?” “I saw more than Tatooine when we merged our minds on Dathomir,” I said. Wild took a step back, gasping for breath. “I saw everything. I hold nothing against you. Wild,” I held both his hands in mine. “I forgive you.”

Wild seemed to stare into space. Then, his eyes filled with tears. “Thank you, Ezra,” He whispered. He flung his arms around me in a tight hug, sobbing into my shoulder. “Shhhh...” I whispered, gently rubbing his shoulders. “It’s alright. You’re gonna be alright.”

Wild’s P.O.V.

As Ezra held me, I cried harder than I’d ever cried in my life. Tears streamed down my cheeks and my strength was drained. But as the minutes rolled by, I began to feel as though a huge burden had been lifted from my shoulders. With each tear that fell from my eyes, a small part of the darkness left me. All this time, I barely knew who I even was. I had even forgotten my own name. And yet, Ezra had not only understood me, forgiven me, trusted and helped me, but he had reminded me. Now I know who I am. I am Wild, son of Dathomir.

The dark was gone. And with it, the years had lifted from me. I felt like a child again. I sat down with a sigh, taking a number of deep breaths. “There there,” murmured Ezra, his hand on my shoulder. “Breathe. Just breathe.” I looked at him and smiled. “Ezra, you’ve given me something I thought I would never have. You’ve given me hope, but you’ve also given me the strength to see another day.” I hugged him again and now it was him who was tearing up.

We both turned to look at Kenobi. He was standing with a warm smile on his face, tear tracks running down his wizened cheeks. “You came here to protect someone, didn’t you, Kenobi?” I asked curiously. “Tell me, is it the Chosen One?” “He is,” The Jedi nodded. I smiled. “Then it is he who will bring justice,” I said.

“Ezra,” said Kenobi, turning to my best friend. “I am very proud of you. You brought hope to someone who had none. You forgave him and in doing so, you set both of you free. Forgiveness is what makes a true Jedi. Which is why I forgive you too, Wild,” Now he turned to me and held out his hand. I shook it and we both smiled. “Take my Dewback,” said Kenobi. “Ride to the North. There, you will find your way back home,”

We both climbed onto the creature’s back, with Ezra’s droid flying after us. “See you soon, Kenobi!” I smiled, waving goodbye. I don’t know if I’ll see him again in this life, but maybe I will in the next. But while my hearts still beat, I’ll make the most of my life. I feel stronger than I ever have, knowing that Ezra is beside me.

Kanan’s P.O.V.

As Hera and I waited back at Chopper Base, I heard a ship coming into land. Through the Force, I could see it was Ezra. He landed and left the ship with Chopper. But there was somebody else with him. I couldn’t believe it. It was Maul...and yet, it wasn’t. Something about him had changed. “Kanan, Hera,” said Ezra. “I hope you can forgive me for leaving. But I brought back a friend.” “Master Jedi,” Maul’s voice sounded different. He sounded somehow younger and more innocent. That sinister undertone was gone. “Your apprentice showed me the light. He reminded me who I am. You may call me Wild.”

“Yeah, Kanan, that’s his real name,” Ezra said. I could sense that every word Maul spoke was true and for a minute or so, I was speechless. “Ezra, how did you do this?” I asked. “Forgiveness is the Jedi way,” He replied. “What about Master Kenobi?” I asked. “He has another purpose,” Wild replied. “This is where we belong,” said Ezra. I felt multiple arms wrapping around me in a warm hug. We all held each other, not knowing if this would be the final time we did this.

Ezra’s P.O.V.

“I’m glad you brought him, Ezra,” It was Hera who spoke. “We’re going to need all the help we can get if we’re to take back Lothal.” With everything else happening, I had completely forgotten that. “Phoenix Squadron is about to try and reclaim my homeworld from the Empire,” I explained to Wild. “Do you feel strong enough to help us?” “Ezra, I feel strong enough to take on the Galaxy,” He replied, with a sense of serenity in his voice. “If that planet is your home, then I will do all I can to help you and your family reclaim it.” “Our family.” I corrected. “Pardon?” He looked a little surprised. I held his hand. “You’re one of us again,” He smiled and ruffled my hair affectionately. “I love you, brother,” he said. I felt a warmth in my heart. “I know,” I smiled.

Stay tuned for the epilogue <3

#Love Thy Enemy #fanfic #darth maul #ezra bridger #obi-wan kenobi #kanan jarrus #chopper #evil strawberry #the new starkiller #cowboy jedi #beardo #orange-bot #finally the main story is over #i'm crying this is such a relief #*hugs everyone* i hope this makes you feel better <3

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So I am woefully behind on my dash and thus all The Best Blogs such as your own, but please tell me: What were your thoughts about Twin Suns? Please feel free to refer me to a post if you already made one.

*blushes* Thank you! And sorry for taking so long to reply to this! Apparently I had even more thoughts on “Twin Suns” than I’d initially thought.

Rebels 3x20: “Twin Suns” has its weaknesses, but I really enjoyed it overall. As you may be aware, I’m a fan of Obi-Wan (yes, yes, I know, ~shock~), so I spent pretty much the entire time I watched the episode clapping my hands in glee (albeit softly, so as not to drown out what was happening) because Obi-Wan was on my screen again. I mean, you’re talking to the person who gets excited every time canon makes the slightest of oblique references to him, so…¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’ve also always been All About Those Parallels™ and this episode abounds with them. The most obvious, of course, are the ones that mirror Qui-Gon’s death sequence in TPM, and I found this fitting for several reasons. First and foremost, I love it because it brings Maul and Obi-Wan’s story full circle. By setting their fight amidst the desolate sand dunes of Tatooine, Obi-Wan and Maul meet for the last time where the audience met Maul for the first time – something which the show explicitly underlines in 3x10: “Visions and Voices: “it ends where it begun… a desert planet… with twin suns”. (In fact, for all we know, the setting of Obi-Wan and Maul’s final encounter might even be somewhere in the Xelric Draw, which, according to Legends canon, is where Qui-Gon and Maul first met and fought. If you look at this map, you’ll notice that the Xelric Draw covers a wide swath of the space between Obi-Wan’s hut and Mos Espa, so it’s not improbable that Obi-Wan might travel there by dewback.)

In contrast to our introduction to Maul, however, which took place under the heat of a midday sun, our last glimpse of him takes place at night under the stars; Obi-Wan and Maul are at the end of their journey together and so – ostensibly, anyway! – are Maul and the audience.

Just as day and night contrast, so too do Obi-Wan and Maul, both when compared to their younger selves and when compared to each other. Both characters have gone through enumerable events in the three decades since they first met one another, all of which have shaped them… but at the end of the day, Obi-Wan has grown and changed in a way that Maul hasn’t. One of the first things Maul says in TPM is the following: ”At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.“ And at the end of “Twin Suns”, his last line is “He…will…avenge us.”

For all that Maul scolded Ezra about refusing to break free from the chains of his past in “Visions and Voices”, Maul is still focused on revenge – still focused on Obi-Wan; in the end, it’s all he has left to give his life purpose. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, has moved on from their grudge match and is focused on the future – on Luke. He is no longer the hot-headed padawan or the crusading knight that Maul knew; he is a guardian, and thus it is only when Luke is threatened that Obi-Wan deigns to fights Maul. Luke is, after all, Obi-Wan’s sole remaining tie to Anakin, his sole remaining purpose for existing… and seemingly his sole remaining hope for a better future.

At the same time, however, the two characters have a great deal in common. Obi-Wan and Maul have always been foils to one another. Both are Force Sensitive children who were taken and raised by their respective Orders, thus setting their feet on the paths to their respective destinies. Both had brothers that were destroyed by Sidious’ machinations and both are deeply lonely as a result. Now, both are relics of a past that has already passed into legend for most of the galaxy; they are old men who have no place in this new world – this new Empire – and have consequently been hiding in exile for the past seventeen years. Obi-Wan has long been aware that they have some commonalities (see some of his comments in TCW 5x16: “The Lawless”) and I think Maul is aware too… he just refuses to acknowledge as much until he’s dying. (Honestly, I’ve always gotten the impression that he’s subconsciously a bit jealous of Obi-Wan and that that is one of the roots of his resentment towards him, but that’s a conversation for another day.)

“He…will…avenge us,” Maul says with his dying breath. Us. Although they belong to very different traditions and have made very different choices, Maul tacitly acknowledges that at the end of the day, they both belong to a way that has vanished, and that this experience bonds them together. It is my personal opinion that both men are tired of fighting by this point – it’s simply that Maul doesn’t know any other way. He seeks out Obi-Wan because it gives his life renewed purpose, and he fights Obi-Wan because that is what he has always done. No matter which of them wins the fight, Maul gets what he wants – either the defeat of his nemesis or a release from his own suffering.  

In a sense, Maul has been occupying a liminal space between life and death ever since Obi-Wan cut him in half in TPM. When we first re-meet him in TCW 4x21: “Brothers”, Maul is emaciated and utterly deranged. As TCW progresses, Maul regains some of his sanity and ambition – and his brother! – only to lose them again. At this point in Rebels, just as when Oppress first found him in TCW, Maul has lost all sense of self and purpose, his own spite and a burning desire for revenge against Obi-Wan (and Sidious) the only things keeping him alive. He lacks hope.

Fortunately for Maul, Obi-Wan is heavily associated with hope in Star Wars; does “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope” ring any bells? ;-)  That said, Obi-Wan is associated with sorrow as much as he is with hope. Perhaps nowhere is this peculiar combination encapsulated as well as in that oft-quoted excerpt from James Luceno’s Legends novel, Labyrinth of Evil: “And you, Master. What does your heart tell you you’re meant for?”“Infinite sadness,” Obi-Wan said, even while smiling.”

We see this theme repeatedly play out in Rebels. The two most blatant examples of Obi-Wan being linked with sorrow are when Maul uses Ezra’s suffering to lure Obi-Wan out of hiding (“Your pain, your sorrow… it calls to him”) and portions of Obi-Wan’s holocron message (“I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with a dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place […] Do not return to the Temple…that time has passed.”). Meanwhile, Obi-Wan repeatedly acts as an embodiment of hope for at least three of our main characters: Kanan (“This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi. Trust in The Force […] we must persevere. And in time, a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you, always.”), Maul (“As for myself, I seek something much simpler, yet equally elusive… Hope. […] I see him! […] He lives!”), and Ezra (“The answer to my question of how to destroy the Sith is Obi-Wan Kenobi.”).

Obi-Wan’s sorrow and hope both come to the forefront during his brief appearance in this episode. Maul’s unnecessary death is tragic in and of itself to Obi-Wan, but the way in which it mirrors Qui-Gon’s death and the fight that preceded it only adds to the pain he feels. And although he undoubtedly has hope for Ezra and the Rebellion after safely seeing the boy off (just look at the faint smile on his face before Maul starts to speak again), there’s something incredibly sad about his parting words to Ezra: “That is your way out. Your way home.” Obi-Wan can’t go home anymore – his home no longer exists. Yet still he clings to hope.

“Look what I have risen above,” Obi-Wan says in response to Maul’s taunting. And that’s Obi-Wan in a nutshell, isn’t it? He’s far from perfect, but despite all the blows life has dealt him, he perseveres and continues to choose the Light. In their previous confrontation in “The Lawless”, he told Maul, “You can kill me, but you will never destroy me”, and this holds true throughout Obi-Wan’s life and beyond. Obi-Wan is sorrow, yes, but he is also hope – and although hope can be shattered, it rises anew from the wreckage each time, a phoenix from the ashes. And hope is indeed “more powerful than you can possibly imagine”.

A related recurring Star Wars theme found in “Twin Suns” is that ‘it’s always darkest before dawn’. It is only after Ezra has given up on finding Obi-Wan, collapsing of heatstroke/dehydration/exhaustion next to a powered-down Chopper, that he achieves his objective. Although Maul dies, he does so with a glimmer of hope that the “Chosen One” will balance the cosmic scales. One might even call it a new hope. ;-) Meanwhile, we literally see this theme played out at the end of the episode, with the dark night fading away into pale morning mist, Tatooine’s twin suns hanging partway up in the sky as Beru calls for Luke (presumably to come back in for breakfast?), the titular new hope.

Speaking of the Chosen One… Ughhh, I’ve hated that prophecy ever since it first popped up in TPM. Can I believe that several key individuals in-universe bought into said prophecy? Absolutely. But honestly, “bring balance to the Force”? I know prophecies are always vague and therefore can be interpreted twelve thousand different ways, but come on. This ties into Star Wars’ problem where it can’t quite make up its mind as to what the Force is, let alone what the Light and Dark sides of it mean or what “balance” would look like. One could argue that we’re not supposed to understand it any more than the characters do – all of whom having differing beliefs on the subject – but I personally think it’s sloppy storytelling rather than an artistic choice. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if TLJ clears any of this up.

…But I’ve gotten off-topic here. The Chosen One. *sighs* Up until TCW’s Mortis arc, I was happy to believe that the prophecy was only true insofar as characters’ perceptions of and reactions to it, but TCW more or less put paid to that when it had literal manifestations of the Force declare Anakin the Chosen One. I can still headcanon my way around that, but I’m pretty sure the canonical intention is for the prophecy to be a legitimate thing. So, working from that interpretation…

I know there’s been a lot of debate post “Twin Suns” about the implications of Obi-Wan’s statement that Luke is the Chosen One – does this mean that Anakin was never the Chosen One in the first place? does this mean that there’s more than one Chosen One? – but I think a lot of viewers are overlooking the simplest explanation, which is that although Obi-Wan may believe that Luke could be the Chosen One, it doesn’t necessarily follow that he is the Chosen One.

Obi-Wan canonically places a great deal of hope – and pressure! – on Luke’s shoulders throughout the Original Trilogy, so a belief that Luke is the Chosen One would dovetail nicely with that behavior. For instance, with that belief in mind, his comment to Luke in RotJ takes on a new meaning: “Then the Emperor has already won. You were our only hope”. This complete and utter focus on Luke to the exclusion of Leia would make a bit more sense if Obi-Wan sincerely believes that Luke is the true Chosen One. (Though that still doesn’t answer the question why Obi-Wan would think Luke must be the Chosen One rather than Leia. *rolls eyes*) Moreover, it is makes sense that Obi-Wan would no longer believe that Anakin/Vader is the Chosen One. By the time we reach the Original Trilogy, Obi-Wan appears to have given up on Anakin. In his mind, the moment that “the good man who was” Anakin turned to the Dark Side, Darth Vader “betrayed and murdered” him. In Obi-Wan’s mind, submerging the galaxy into darkness is incompatible with bringing “balance to the Force” a la the Chosen One prophecy; therefore, Anakin either lost his status as the Chosen One when he became a Sith or he was never truly the Chosen One to begin with.

Another possibility is that Obi-Wan, master of “half-truths and hyperbole” as he is, is merely trying to give a dying Maul some form of comfort and hope. After all, he never outright says that Luke is the Chosen One – his reply of “he is” in answer to Maul’s question (“Is he the Chosen One?”) certain implies that he’s referring to the person he’s all but admitted to protecting (i.e. Luke), but we all know that Obi-Wan sometimes has a casual relationship with the truth, especially when he thinks his obfuscation will serve a greater good.  It would be just like Obi-Wan to intentionally give a vague reply that he knows someone will read an incorrect message into; after all, it’s not like he’s lying… And ironically enough, this is another way in which Obi-Wan parallels Maul. Obi-Wan’s line to Ezra that Maul “used your desire to do good to deceive you” and “manipulated the truth” could just as easily apply to himself, what with his “the truth is often what we make of it” and “from a certain point of view” way of looking at the world.

But honestly, I couldn’t care less who is or isn’t the prophesied Chosen One. It’s been a recurring theme in the prequels and animated TV series, but thus far it has yet to significantly affect the story (except insofar as it affects the characters, who in turn influence the plot – but most of this is implied rather than shown outright onscreen).

The audience sees “Twin Suns” through Ezra’s and Maul’s eyes, and both of them are lost – figuratively and literally – throughout most of the episode. From a narrative standpoint, perhaps this is why so much of the episode’s time is spent focused on them wandering in the desert. Both characters are searching for Obi-Wan in hopes that he will be the solution to their respective problems… failing to recognize that those solutions can only be found within themselves. On a personal level, I’m a bit unsatisfied by how much of the episode is wasted on Maul and Ezra’s wanderings, but I can acknowledge its merits on a meta-narrative level. Perhaps we’re supposed to feel frustrated and as though something is incomplete, just as Maul and Ezra do… or perhaps I’m giving the Rebels writers way too much credit.

Of course, no discussion of this episode would be complete without examining Ezra’s role in the story. “Twin Suns” acts as a metaphor for Ezra’s inner journey every bit as much as it does Maul’s. While their futures may indeed “converge on a planet with twin suns” as Maul claimed in “Visions and Voices”, Ezra does not choose to “walk that path together” with Maul. Ezra certainly has his attachments, but unlike Maul, he isn’t so married to the past as to be irrevocably trapped in it.

“What else can we do?” Ezra says in response to Chopper’s grumbling after their ship is destroyed, leaving them stranded in the middle of the desert. “We have to go forward.” And that’s what this episode is about for Ezra, really – learning to move forward again… and learning to accept that he already has everything he needs in order to do so. 

A few more random thoughts before I (finally) end this:

•   Chopper’s slump and resigned sigh before turning around to go after Ezra like his babysitter will never not be hilarious to me.

•   Chopper goes from being powered-down and sand-logged in one scene to awake and alert in the next. The only possible conclusion? Obi-Wan must have fixed him while Ezra was sleeping. And later, Obi-Wan pats Chopper while talking to Ezra; that’s practically a declaration of friendship coming from him! It makes you wonder what kind of conversation they had before Ezra woke up… (That would explain how Obi-Wan knew Ezra’s full name, though, if Chopper told him.) …I kind of want that missing scene in a fic now.

•   “You saw what you wanted to see, believed what you wanted to believe,” Obi-Wan tells Ezra of the combined holocrons’ message. Going off of what I said earlier about Obi-Wan possibly misleading Maul, I can’t help but wonder if he’s doing the same thing to Ezra here. I mean, Obi-Wan is obviously trying to get Ezra to not delve into the subject any further and to leave Tatooine before he learns about Luke (and, y’know, to protect him from Maul), but part of me wonders if there’s anything more to it – the same part of me that wonders if the holocrons had a point beyond the obvious (and, if we’re being honest here, author intended) interpretation. Not to take anything away from Luke, but I’d love to see a fic that runs with an AU interpretation of the holcrons’ message. 

•   I had had some doubts when I first heard him in the episode promo, but I after watching “Twin Suns”, I have to admit that Stephen Stanton did an excellent Alec-Guiness-as-Ben-Kenobi impersonation in this episode. Kudos to him and to the writing staff for nailing the character’s speech patterns a la ANH.

•   I’m just as glad to see Maul finally gone (well, ostensibly anyway!), but I’m also glad that he was able to find some small measure of peace on his proverbial deathbed. He was dealt a truly terrible hand in life, and although he inflicted suffering on so many beings, you can’t help but feel sorry for him.

•  “That is not your responsibility. I will heal this old wound.” Other fans have doubtless already commented on this Easter Egg, but it’s still worth a gleeful mention.

•   Responsibility is another theme that runs throughout “Twin Suns”. I got the impression that we’re supposed to think Ezra is initially trying to foist the primary responsibility for destroying the Sith off on someone else, someone older and more qualified (hence his search for Obi-Wan) and that he eventually learns to take responsibility for fighting evil himself. I disagree with that reading– I’d argue that Ezra’s narrative arc has been more about learning to be able to depend on others, as he’d had stand on his own two feet for years before he met the Ghost crew. Moreover, while of course the Rebellion doesn’t need to wait around for mystical saviors in the form of Jedi (nor should they!), that doesn’t mean that the adult Jedi – namely Obi-Wan, Yoda, and any other Councillors who might have survived – have no responsibility to the Rebellion, either. The rise of the Empire was by no means solely their fault, but like many, they did help to enable it… and therefore the responsibility for destroying it also partially rests with them. The problem, of course, is that this isn’t their sole responsibility to the galaxy, and so they have to choose which responsibilities to prioritize. In the end, they deem the survival of the Jedi (through themselves and Luke) and the protection of someone powerful enough to eventually bring about the demise of the Sith (once again, Luke) to be more important than any individual strikes they could make against the Empire on their own. Are they correct in their decision? Well, that depends upon your point of view.

•  You can definitely see the moment where Obi-Wan goes from a calm refusal to fight – even amusement – to Must Protect Luke At All Costs™. Similarly, you can see the moment when he recognizes the move Maul is making and adjusts his stance accordingly. Some very nice animation work here from the creators!

•   Some fans find the shortness of Maul and Obi-Wan’s final duel to be unsatisfying and unrealistic, while other fans think that the duel’s speed and anticlimactic nature are the whole point. I… don’t particularly care, tbh? I can see both sides. That said, I do think that they should have shown Obi-Wan’s lightsaber making contact with Maul’s saber-staff and chest for more than half of a second in the dark; on my first watch-through, I didn’t realize that he’d actually hit Maul until Maul was dead. I was so confused… and I know I’m not the only viewer to have had this problem.

•  I love the strange sense of kinship that’s evoked between Maul and Obi-Wan as he lays dying. And the way Obi-Wan cradles Maul and gently closes his eyes kills me every time.

•  Why, precisely, is Ezra so sure that Maul is dead when he left before the Big Showdown™? Does he just have that much faith in Obi-Wan? Did the Force tell him as much? Personally, I’m rooting for someone to write a crack fic where Obi-Wan comms him mid-flight through something he installed in Chopper or something and tells him, leading to a wacky correspondence. (Utmost secrecy and security risks? What utmost secrecy and security risks?)

•  I was slightly disappointed not to get any more of Luke than his silhouette (well, Ezra’s silhouette, if we’re going to be technical lol – Rebels re-used footage of Ezra to save time & money) in the closing scene, but I also thought it was kind of fitting. The closer we get to the timeline of ANH, the stronger Luke’s shadow looms over Rebels, after all.

•  The closing scene in general!!! I get chills each time I watch it. It really ties “The Journals of Ben Kenobi”, the Rebels series, and ANH together nicely. All we needed was for Obi-Wan’s bantha family to make an appearance… ;-)

•   As much as I loved “Twin Suns”, I think it would have worked better if they’d cut just a smidgeon of the ‘wandering in the desert’ bits and used that extra time to 1. Show a point in Obi-Wan and Ezra’s conversation where Obi-Wan gets Ezra to promise not to tell anyone that he’s still alive and on Tatooine, or 2. Shown us Kanan’s reaction to learning that Obi-Wan is still alive… and is hiding on a backwater planet instead of searching for remaining Jedi and/or helping the Rebellion (I’d love to see the other characters’ reactions to this news too, but Kanan’s reaction is the one that is most important thematically), or 3. Use their original draft’s plotline, which involved Ezra and Kanan going to Tatooine instead of Ezra and Chopper. This last scenario would have the added benefit of more narrative ‘showing’ than ‘telling’ when it comes to Kanan’s reaction, and it would allow for further streamlining of the episode, as TPTB could then cut out most of the scenes with the rest of the Ghost crew (which, although enjoyable, split the audience’s focus in an undesirable way in this episode, IMO, even if they did act as nice bookends). Any of these options would have made for a much tighter, less rushed, more coherent, and more satisfying episode.

All criticisms and analyses aside, I really liked “Twin Suns”. Although it’s enriched by knowledge of previous Rebels episodes, it can stand on its own. I’d say it’s definitely among the best work Rebels has produced and is a worthy addition to new Star Wars canon.

#phos replies #spectral-musette #obi wan kenobi #darth maul #star wars rebels #star wars meta #things done by phos #star wars #perfect parallels #star wars prequels #star wars original trilogy #swr #meta #death #star wars is pain & suffering #star wars is perseverance & hope

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Star Wars Rebels: “Twin Suns”- Review

Two old adversaries come face to face in the superbly realized “Twin Suns.” (Review Contains Spoilers)

Lost in the barren deserts of Tatooine, Darth Maul stands on the precipice of madness as he pushes himself further and further in his for his old enemy, Obi-Wan Kenobi. In a list ditch effort, Maul utilizes a shard of the Sith holocron taken from Malachor to lead Ezra Bridger into the wasteland and in the process draw out his adversary.

Next to the creation of Ahsoka Tano, the resurrection of Darth Maul has always been one of the most iconic and controversial decisions made by the Lucasfilm Animation team. However, despite the somewhat rocky road that lead to his first inclusion in The Clone Wars, Maul’s tenure as a villainous face in Star Wars’s animated sub-franchise has been one of its easy highlights. This is in no small part to the incredible voice work conducted by Sam Witwer. Witwer built upon the work established by Ray Park and Peter Serafinowicz in The Phantom Menace and transformed the mostly silent Sith assassin into a deadly manipulator with his own tragic and complicated psyche. Witwer’s take on the character has always been a highlight of both The Clone Wars and Rebels and this is certainly the case here in “Twin Suns.” By now, a few days out from its debut, it is clear that this installment marks the end of Maul’s long strange journey and while it may not be perfect the end result is an episode that is ambitious and entirely memorable.

Writer and director Dave Filoni has long cemented himself as a man who has a keen sense of not only the Star Wars franchise, but also of how to direct animation and the work accomplished in “Twin Suns” is some of the most striking the team has put to film. Even outside of the key emotional moments that occur at the episode’s end (and don’t worry I will make sure to spend ample time on those), Filoni crafts a Tatooine that feels uniquely desolate through the utilization of static shots, negative space, and sparse sound design. Never before has the desert planet felt so crushingly lonely and barren. It turns the planet’s environment into a character in and of itself, and arguably just as much of an episodic antagonist as Maul himself.

Despite this, there is an element of structural disconnect within “Twin Suns” that, unfortunately, is intrinsic to the concept of the episode in the first place. The fact of the matter is, the meatiest and most dramatic aspects of “Twin Suns’” narrative do not require The Ghost crew as a presence to occur. “Twin Suns” even makes it a point to maneuver Ezra out of the way of the conflict itself once the moment does occur. The result is ultimately a no-win scenario for the team in how the series has been structured to this point. An episode focusing entirely on Maul and Obi-Wan would have felt out of place due to its narrative distance from the series’ central cast, while any attempt to include Ezra in the narrative runs the risk of feeling forced. It is a scenario that is not all that far removed from the confrontation of Ahsoka and Vader last season in “Twilight of the Apprentice.” The meeting of master and apprentice was a moment for the mythology, franchise, and fanbase that was demanded of and even needed and the crew accomplished some of their best all time work in its realization. However, it is a story whose large emotional groundwork was laid outside the confines of Rebels itself. Kenobi and Maul’s meeting plays out in almost identical structural fashion, but arguably does so in a manner that feels more emotionally cohesive due to the time that we have spent exploring the twisted dynamic connecting Maul and Ezra. What Rebels runs the risk of doing in the process is turning its main cast into witnesses to more mythologically significant moments in the universe, rather than agents of their own destiny.

Luckily, the path that “Twin Suns” does lay out for Ezra does more or less side swipe much of the friction his inclusion in this narrative could have created. In the process, Filoni and Gilroy alongside some strong voice work from Taylor Gray, establish “Twin Suns” itself as the conclusion to Ezra’s season long arc of searching for a way to defeat the Sith and the wedge this has created between him and his fellow Phoenix Squadron members. Building smartly upon groundwork established in “Steps into Shadow,” “Holocrons of Fate,” and “Visions and Voices,” as well as the first two seasons, “Twin Suns” forces Ezra to face what his hunt for vengeance against the Sith has brought him. While it may have been a tad stop gap in its season long execution, it is clear that Ezra’s selfish search for self-improvement and revenge against the Dark Side reaches its climax here in “Twin Suns.” Abandoning his crew, leading Chopper into danger, and falling into Maul’s trap, all play into his own recklessness and inability to recognize that his destiny does not lie in the defeat of the Sith but his loyalty to his family and to the rebellion.

It is here that “Twin Suns” actually crafts a rather subtle and intelligent theme about misreading destiny and roles. Ezra misreads his own path and that of Obi-Wan’s as the one’s destined to defeat and destroy the Sith and Obi-Wan, more subtly, misreads Luke as being the Chosen One, letting his own experience with the tragic fall of Anakin blind him to the possibility of redemption. However, most telling of this is perhaps Maul himself. Maul was literally a cog in a much larger galactic machine laid out by Darth Sidious. He was to be a precise and deadly instrument and having been robbed of this role he has spent the entirety of his animated presence searching for a new role whether it be as a man of vengeance, brother, son, Sith Lord, crime lord, political usurper, or as a mentor. When all of these fail, we see the Maul we meet at the start of “Twin Suns,” a broken and desperate man howling helplessly in the desert.

This culminates in the final fateful meeting between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Maul. Stephen Stanton does an uncannily good impression of Alec Guiness’s timeless take on Old Ben, but in the process manages to carry with him a performance that carries with him all the aspects of the character from wizened mentor, hardened warrior, and sad, lonely man who has lost almost everything he has ever cared for. Stanton, Witwer, Gilroy, and Filoni smartly play off all of this in the final meeting between these two characters. Obi-Wan has honed his loneliness and loss into a new purpose in the safeguarding of Luke and Maul has been unable to channel his hatred and rage into anything but a revenge against Obi-Wan. It plays out beautifully in their dialogue together and even more so in their lightning-quick duel.

While I can certainly understand the sentiment among some fans that would find the Kurosawa-samurai-film-style meeting underwhelming, this unexpected result proves a beyond fitting capper to a decades old rivalry. Filoni smartly uses the choreography to inform character with Maul’s more wild and erratic swings hold hints towards the same fighting style he has employed since his first appearance in The Phantom Menace. In contrast, Obi-Wan adopts a fighting stance and style that incorporates his traditional style, that of his master Qui-Gon, and that which he has developed living alone in the desert. It’s a quick, violent, and brilliant moment that is beautifully realized and conceptualized.

As Obi- Wan bisects Maul’s saber and delivers the killing blow, Maul’s final moments begin. It is strange to feel this level of sadness for a character that has caused undeniable pain to dozens of characters central to not only Rebels but Star Wars as a whole, but the creative team, and Witwer in particular, have crafted Maul into a man who has experienced his own sense of loss and hopelessness. It is not redemption, but character depth that Maul experiences in his final moments, and this ultimately proves all the better. Maul asking if Obi-Wan’s mission is in safeguarding the Chosen One is particularly poignant and while Obi-Wan may not share his foe’s want for vengeance, it is oddly cathartic to know that all of the Dark Siders harmed by Sidious’s rise for power also have a stake in Luke’s mission in the Original Trilogy.

“Twin Suns” is an ambitious episode and it attempts risky storytelling decisions that are to be more than commended. It may not be an absolute slam dunk, but when “Twin Suns” shines it does so with the power of its titular stars. It makes for incredible Star Wars storytelling and super animated storytelling overall. Score: A

#Star Wars #Star Wars Rebels #swr #review #reviews #Darth Maul #Maul #Ezra Bridger #Obi-Wan Kenobi #Twin Suns #rebels

[hellosaltysaladcollectionstuff]

Note: This story includes spoilers for the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Read on at your own risk!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker finally brings the nine-movie Skywalker Saga to a conclusion, finishing the story of the Jedi Order's war with the dark Sith. It's a conflict that has ravaged the galaxy through wars between the Separatists and the Galactic Republic in the prequel movies, the Rebellion and the Galactic Empire in the original trilogy, and the Resistance and the First Order in the sequel trilogy. Though both the Jedi and the Sith have nearly been destroyed, as we saw in The Last Jedi, there are still two warriors for each faction battling for the fate of the galaxy far, far away in The Rise of Skywalker: Rey on the light side, and Kylo Ren on the dark.

During the final conflict of the film, Rey, as the last Jedi, finds herself facing down the might of the Sith once and for all. And though it looks like she's not up to the task, at the last second, she's infused with the power of all the Jedi who have come before her. In a poignant moment, the voices of the Jedi of the past ring out in Rey's mind, granting her the strength and confidence to stand for the Light side.

If you listen close, you might recognize a few of those voices--and there might be plenty you don't recognize, especially because they come pretty quickly. So who are all the Jedi of the past standing with Rey? Check out the complete list below.

And if you're looking for more references and callbacks to past Star Wars material, check out our giant list of Rise of Skywalker Easter eggs.

Star Wars News

How Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Ends For Every Major Character

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker - 48 Easter Egg From Past Movies

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Review - A Galactic Disappointment

Star Wars Timeline: How To Watch It All In Order On Disney Plus

1. Obi-Wan Kenobi

Ewan McGregor reprises his prequel role as Obi-Wan, at least with his voice, something he also did during The Force Awakens. And like in The Force Awakens, you can hear the voice of the original Obi-Wan, Alec Guinness, as well. For the first movie, the filmmakers used a bit of Guinness's dialogue from the original film to make it sound like he says "Rey" during her vision after touching Luke Skywalker's lightsaber at Maz Kanata's castle. That same clip makes it into the end of The Rise of Skywalker as well.

2. Yoda

The Jedi Master responsible for Luke Skywalker had a brief return as a Force ghost in The Last Jedi, where he gave Luke some useful advice about his interactions with Rey. Yoda's influence on the Jedi continues one last time as we hear him in the Sith temple, voiced again by Frank Oz.

3. Luke Skywalker

Rey's mentor might have sacrificed himself to save the Resistance and gone into the Force, but he's still around to help out here and there. After Rey saw him on Ahch-To, we again hear Mark Hamill's voice during Rey's toughest challenge.

4. Anakin Skywalker

Though Kylo Ren hears Darth Vader's voice in his mind--one that Emperor Palpatine takes responsibility for--the Dark Lord of the Sith's redemption means that Rey hears him during her final battle. Hayden Christiansen reprises the role from the prequel movies.

5. Qui-Gon Jinn

The Jedi who first saw the potential in Anakin Skywalker and came to believe he was the prophesied Jedi who would bring balance to the Force was also one of Palpatine's first victims. Qui-Gon, played by Liam Neeson, fell to Palpatine's first apprentice, Darth Maul, but he also contacted Yoda through the Force in Revenge of the Sith. And now he's back for the final battle against the Sith Lord who indirectly ended him.

6. Mace Windu

Of everyone who took on Emperor Palpatine during his rise to power, Mace Windu came closest to defeating him. In fact, he only fell because of Anakin's interference during the Jedi's fall to become Darth Vader. It makes sense that we'd hear the voice of Samuel L. Jackson at the moment Rey is finally able to defeat Palpatine once and for all.

7. Ahsoka Tano

A longtime character in the Star Wars cartoon series, starting with The Clone Wars, Ahsoka was formerly Anakin's padawan. Ashley Eckstein returns to Star Wars for Rey's big moment, although she's an interesting inclusion, given that as of Star Wars Rebels, Ahsoka was still alive. She's only a few years older than Han Solo, after all.

8. Kanan Jarrus

One of the key Jedi figures in Star Wars Rebels, Kanan Jarrus survived Order 66 during the Clone Wars and went on to mentor Jedi padawan and Rebels protagonist Ezra Bridger before he was killed during the year of the Battle of Yavin. We don't hear Ezra among the voices of the Jedi of the Path, but you can pick out Kanan, voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr., among the elder Jedi aiding Rey.

9. Aayla Secura

A Jedi from the fall of the Republic who only briefly appeared in Revenge of the Sith, Aayla Sekura was a much more prominent figure in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. There, she fought alongside Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano. Jennifer Hale voiced Aayla in the show and she returns for The Rise of Skywalker as well.

10. Luminara Unduli

Another Jedi Master from before the rise of the Empire, Luminara was a major figure in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. She fought alongside Ahsoka against the Sith acolyte Asajj Ventress, but was eventually captured during the events of Revenge of the Sith. Olivia d'Abo reprises the role of Luminara for The Rise of Skywalker.

11. Adi Gallia

Like most of the other Jedi on this list, Adi was present on the Jedi Council throughout Palpatine's rise. She appeared briefly in the movies, and fought alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: The Clone Wars before she was killed by Savage Opress, Darth Maul's brother. She's again voiced by Angelique Perrin, as she was in the series, in The Rise of Skywalker.

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[tarisilmarwen]

“Twin Suns“ Liveblog

Am I prepared?  Not remotely.

Whew boy, this is gonna be a roller-coaster.

...Have I got tissues?

Hang on, I might need tissues.

Okay, ready.

Go.

Oh okay good, we start right with the preview clip that I didn’t watch.

‘cause I was deliberately trying to avoid spoiling myself for anything.

And Maul is just a little unhinged.

Side note:

Maul fans unironically (repeatedly!) compared this scene of Maul screaming obscenities into the desert to Stitch going out into the woods looking for his family.

If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about them, I don’t know what does.

Anyway...

Maul plotting to draw Obi-Wan out by...???  Wrecking shit?  Endangering people?  I guess?

Whatever he’s planning I don’t like it.  Holy toledo Maul is batshit.

He is just... not taking things very well is he?

I think Ezra’s rejection cracked him, guys.

Pulling out the holocron shard...

Hang on... hang on hang on HANG ON IS MAUL DELIBERATELY GONNA SEND THE VISION TO EZRA?

Like he did back in “Visions and Voices?”  When he wanted to let Ezra know he was coming by freaking him out?

Is he gonna lure Ezra into the desert to deliberately endanger him and flush Obi-Wan from hiding?!

THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HE’S GONNA DO, ISN’T IT?

Oh stars, dear genre-savvy please be wrong please be wrong please be wrong.

aNYWAY here’s the titlecard.

With no fanfare oh wonderful.

I hate this.

Cue nighttime on Atollon.

Awww, sleeping Ezra!

Nice to see that he and Zeb are still sharing a room.

This scene has some great direction and atmosphere going on, A+ animators.

Oooooh and the MUSIC!

Uh-oh, the Sith holocron is glowing.  Bad sign.

Oh shit.

“Senator Organa confirmed his death.”  Ha ha ha yeah, Senator Organa lied through his teeth, Rex.

Lied.  Through his.  Teeth.

“You’ve heard it before and it was just a trick.”  Except it was actually Maul dicking around with Ezra before dropping in to pay him a visit but okay, sure, whatever you say Kanan.

“I wanna go to Tatooine to check things out!”

Oh Ezra.

My precious son.

My sweet little “I will SAVE everyone!” blueberry.

Worried Spacemom is worried and no-nonsense.

This conversation is so sweet.

And it almost looks like Hera will hug Ezra?

Hug please?

Hug?

No?

Awww, no hug.  Drat.

Heh, Ezra being sneaky and tryna grab an A-wing.

And Chopper’s coming along too, natch.

“Hey!  What are you doing?”

HE’S ESCAPING, RANDOM PILOT.  HE’S ESCAPING.

s’how Ezra rolls yo.

AH HA HA HA THE LITTLE SHIT IS PRETENDING LIKE HE CAN’T HEAR.

So precious.

Awww, and apologizing to Hera before he goes.

Spacemom is gonna be so mad when he gets back.

“YOU ENDANGERED YOURSELF AND THE MISSION AND YOU LOST AN A-WING YOU ARE GROUNDED YOUNG MAN GROUNDED!”

Hi Chopper.

Nice touch with Ezra’s startled jump making the A-wing swerve.

Once again, I just love how this scene is staged and directed.

So quiet.

So nice.

And pretty music.

Aaaaaaaand this is where Ezra loses the A-wing.

Only question now is who crunched it.

Oh oh oh oh ominous shadow, not good not good WHO IS THAT IS IT MAUL?

Uh-oh, there’s Sith holocron pieces it’s a trap MAUL TOTALLY LURED HIM THERE.

Tusken Raiders oh joy.  That’s... that’s great.

WHY AM I ALWAYS RIGHT?!

I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEEEEEEEWWWWW IIIIIIIT!

Maul deliberately gave Ezra the vision to lure him there to put him in danger to get to Obi-Wan I HATE BEING RIGHT.

OH CRIPES.

OH JEEZ.

DO NOT HURT EZRA.

Oh shit hi Maul.

Just summarily disposed of the raiders once they were no longer of use to him.

No big.

See, this is why I don’t understand the people who cry about Maul having so much character development.

He’s still a muderdick who uses people like tools to get what he wants.

He only marginally cared about Ezra because he thought Ezra was gonna be swayed over to his side and now that Ezra’s proven he ain’t gonna do that Maul has no compunctions siccing Tusken Raiders on him to bait Obi-Wan.

So like a Sith.

Anyway, Ezra and Chopper are now stranded in the Tatooine desert, how fun.

Uhhh gughhg ghgg DON’T DO THAT MAUL, DON’T BE CREEPY.

Shades of “Visions and Voices”.  Nice.

HA HA HA HA HA THAT SIGH OF EXASPERATION FROM CHOPPER.

“DAMMIT ORGANIC UNIT EZRA BRIDGER YOU ARE GONNA BE THE DEATH OF ME.”

*le follows*

And cue sandstorm of course.

I hate you Maul.  I hate you so much.  Why u do this to my blueberry?

Just... just no hesitation.  He didn’t think twice about stranding Ezra in the desert and putting his life in danger to take advantage of Obi-Wan’s compassion.

No, I’m not over it.  Even with everything I thought was gonna happen this episode I DID NOT FORESEE THIS.

WHAT AN ASS.

Ohhhhh oh Ezra no baby no.

Ezra! D:

Chopper!

Ow my heart, Taylor’s acting in this scene is so good.

Side note: holy COW the sand dusting!  I love how it coats everything.

Also:

OW MY HEART.

Ezra “I screwed up again” Bridger everyone.

*sobs quietly*

MAUL, LEAVE EZRA THE HELL ALONE, STOP MAKING HIM HATE HIMSELF.  OH FORCE.

*sobbing not so quietly now*

Ezra...

...

OBI-WAN!

i’M SORRY I NEED A MINUTE IJUSTLAFKSNL--

*GROSS SOBBING*

*blows nose*

I NEED A MINUTE.

...

Okay, back.

AAHHHHHHHF HHHAAAAA OF COURSE OBI-WAN KNOWS HIM.

Many talks with Yoda I presume.

Watch all the fanboys whine about how this messes with canon.  Ha ha no.

Obi-Wan is on record for lying to Luke about Vader.  I think it’s quite within the realm of possibility that he conveniently failed to mention Ezra.

Him and Yoda.

Sorry y’all can’t deal with the fact that the old wise mentor figures lied to their trainee.

The voice they got for Obi-Wan is SO GOOD.

“Where you should never have been.”  HAAAAAAAA.

Small little jab at the canon purists there.

Also, let it be known that Obi-Wan is also on record for stretching the truth to Ezra.

You know damn well that Luke is the key to destroying the Sith, Kenobi.

But he’s gonna go and make it out like Maul was manipulating the answer the whole time.

Which... isn’t exactly wrong, just not the whole truth.

SO like Obi-Wan.

Oh HI HIIIIIII.

HELLO.

YOU’RE STILL CREEPY MAUL.

PLEASE GO AWAY.

Obi-Wan making Ezra leave, aww.

Go blueberry!  Go home!

“See you soon, apprentice.” UUGGGHGGHHHGG GUHHHHG NO.

DON’T YOU DARE, MAUL.

Ohhhhhh, this is good stuff.

Such great dialogue.

Ooooooooh, Maul threatened Luke.

Bad idea.  Baaaaaad idea.

He’s going down.

oh hO HO HO HO HO HO!

This is it guys!

...Wow, that was quick.

Woooooooow okay.

Was kinda hoping for more lightsaber flurries.

Obi-Wan just smacked him down like nothing.

The fanboys and fangirls are gonna be piiiiiiiiised lol.

Actually I kinda like this.

Was hoping Maul would go down like a pussy.

...Almost feel bad for him too, well done show.

Not a lot of fandoms can make me sorry for the villain like that.

Okay, let’s go back to Ezra.

AWWWWWW spacefamily feels!

I love it.

LUKE CAMEO! :D

Aaaaand gorgeous sad music to close us out.

I... I actually really loved it!  Maybe a smidge disappointed we didn’t get a longer lightsaber battle but then, this was never really about that was it?  The time for revenge and grudge matches is past, it’s time for hope and new beginnings.

Think they told a much more meaningful story this way.

...”Zero Hour” is gonna hurt.

#liveblog #star wars #star wars rebels #spoilers