Star Wars: The Disney+ Empire Strikes Again and Again and...

that was great, and the first time this show really did feel like live-action Rebels (also great seeing that small bit of live-action Clone Wars - young Ahsoka was terrific).

seems Hayden Christensen's reputation among SW fans has been thoroughly rehabilitated by these past few appearances. personally thought he still seemed a bit wooden, but it mostly worked this time around.

young Ahsoka was terrific

Turns out it's the daughter from Barbie! Good summer for her.

On behalf of my son, who LOVES Thrawn and has read all the books about him and just thinks his whole backstory is fascinating and deep - I am annoyed at how long it’s taking to reveal him. There’s just not going to be enough time in the show for him to absolutely rule.

On behalf of myself, who has never seen a show with Thrawn and have nothing invested in him whatsoever - I’m annoyed at how it’s taking them to reveal him. There’s not enough time in the show to truly demonstrate how seriously I should be taking him as a threat.

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Wednesday, September 13, 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Update - I was into Thrawn, my son was not.

But we did come together in finding some creatures to hate more than Space Whales.

Son was Darth Vader for halloween last 2 years. Will be a stormtrooper this year. Not sure he is learning the right lessons from this franchise.

^believes everything the Rebels tell him

tbc I feel he should want to be a Jawa with a bandolier full of cbd gummies

you could probably make back as a security consultant, considering how Imperial security technology doesn't seem to ever include multi-factor authentication and seems to be as simple as "killing someone, wearing their clothes, and using their fingerprints"

*bank

might get cancelled though for doing work for bad people

as long as fingerprints and faces open phones, the same is true here and now.

Update - I was into Thrawn, my son was not.

But we did come together in finding some creatures to hate more than Space Whales.

Were they the horse rats or the Samurai Tusken Raiders?

And think I agree with your son. Mikkelsen's animated Thrawn >> Mikkelsen's live action Thrawn

Oh wait. The cravat wearing snail people just turned up

very dapper for a nomadic people

Thrawn looked better than I expected but lol at the scuffed up Stormtroopers and their Son of the Harpy General. Maybe they're all blue dudes also.

Oh wait. The cravat wearing snail people just turned up

― groovypanda, Wednesday, September 20, 2023 bookmarkflaglink

very dapper for a nomadic people

― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Wednesday, September 20, 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Haha I was calling them “Dandy Turtles”

So, I didn’t see the final season of Rebels so I don’t know the details of how Thrawn and Ezra got here in the first place. But… did Thrawn take that whole army with him too? And if so, then I guess they all modified their outfits because they were just bored and there is apparently nothing in this entire Galaxy worth conquering?

Stormtroopers have been doing Eyes Wide Shut style orgies

lol

xpost there's not much to add about the end of Rebels - basically, the final battle takes place on Lothal and ends with Ezra using his animal communication powers to summon the purgill to transport him, Thrawn and Thrawn's Star Destroyer somewhere unknown (which begs the question of why Ahsoka didn't think of talking to the space whales sooner, but nvm).

so yes, the stormtroopers were taken along for the ride and their useless armor prob fell apart while they were waiting it out. also been seeing some theories that they're dead troopers resurrected by the nightsisters' magic, zzzz

the tone of this show is bizarrely muted - everything from the color palette to the line delivery is so lifeless and flat. thrawn was just "hi sabine long time no see, i'm gonna let you go find ezra now while i continue my evil deeds, bye". and the way sabine greeted ezra was almost as if he'd gone on vacation for a few weeks instead of disappearing for several years

Yeah agree with that last part. I guess Ezra already knows all the events of Episodes 4-6 somehow hence wasn't all 'did we win yet?!'

Thrawn can only talk in that way tho so at least that fits.

also been seeing some theories that they're dead troopers resurrected by the nightsisters' magic, zzzz

if this also explains who all those shadowy dudes at the Emperor's hangout in Rise of Skywalker are tho that might work

https://boingboing.net/2023/09/26/disney-quietly-removes-jizz-from-star-wars-continuity.html

Of course, this jizz erasure should not be confused with the recent revelation from Marvel's in-continuity Darth Vader comics, which established that Anakin Skywalker's fatherless conception was not, in fact, immaculate, but rather the result of Emperor Palpatine using his Sith abilities to Force-impregnate Shmi Skywalker. That is, unfortunately, still part of the canon.

Why would that not be part of the canon(?) It's from the Prequel Trilogy, right (or at least strongly implied there)?

tbf that's not a literal scene, it's among a bunch of metaphorical force vision scenes

iirc the canon is that palpatine was messing around with the force in a bunch of weird ways and anakin's existence was linked to that

what's funnier is the more recent comics where the force gets way out of wack due to someone activating an ancient artifact. everyone's affected, but Darth Vader ends up seeking out some other ancient artifacts including a shield that he keeps using to channel powerful force blasts. this is after he completely loses control and ends up blowing a giant hole in the side of his star destroyer

Anyway: nice way to have Leia without having her on-screen in yesterday's episode.

Ezra actor really great at channeling the animated character.

he really is. the casting of everyone is great just based on chemistry; still have some grumbles about the general editing of the episodes but i like that the show's picked up a lot in the last few

also been seeing some theories that they're dead troopers resurrected by the nightsisters' magic, zzzz

welp

very uneven finale and series overall

wtf that was the finale?! argh

I will be interested to see where it goes exactly; if anything I'm kinda curious how the reappearance of Ezra in the New Republic plays out (like...does Luke swing by to say hi from his temple or). Given that Filoni's working on a film that ties together all these 'interregnal' series for lack of a better word, guess we'll find out.

(As it is, still most curious about the next season of The Bad Batch -- and Andor obv. But I guess the next thing that might be up is Skeleton Crew.)

the story did exactly what I thought it'd do, or at least it's alluded to, with the entire "there's a big force mystery on this planet" subplot. the Mortis force allegory characters appear in statue form!

Yeah that was a strand I didn't expect!

I really liked this final episode. The "Rebels" feel was strong and the fight scenes were good over all. Some allusions to Jackson's LoTR films, too, I felt.

Guess we'll see the full reunited Rebels crew - and maybe Kanan as Force Ghost? - in Filoni's film?

Can't help feeling this series was too slight overall and needed more stuff to happen.

Kanan had...a different form at the end of Rebels, which actually would be cool to see in live action

Feel like these series all have good stuff, but ultimate end up a little too long and weirdly paced. Obi-Wan would've been a lot better as a film, Book of Boba Fett would've been better as a mini-arc in Mando (which it kinda ended up being), this had a good amount of time but soooo much of it felt slow and off, especially the pilot

That said, yeah, still worthwhile esp. as someone who has gotten through all of Clone Wars and Rebels, maybe less so if you're not that deep into it. Hopefully Mando stays good(ish) because I'm already kinda ready to wrap a bow on this entire era, bring on the High Republic show and the Rey movie

Again I'll say I'm pretty happy with the casting decisions and they will definitely continue to pay off into the future (though RIP Ray Stevenson, a shame... didn't realize until now he also voiced Gar Saxon in Clone Wars/Rebels)

I’m on board with everything you just said

to an extent the entire Ahsoka series was fan service but that very brief Morai cameo was the extra bit I appreciated

oh yeah! the other bit articles are missing is the large statues at the end seem to include the Mortis daughter, but the sculpture is degraded or more likely defaced given the planet’s habitants

but you know who has a link

I would like to see Ahsoka and Mando stories/characters crossover because I thought most of Mando s3 was a dud. But mixing in Thrawn and Sabine (among others) into Mando’s plot might help that show recover.

they mixed in a little material from the new canon books because Thrawn was one of the few who met both Anakin and Vader and easily deduced they were the same guy

and that guy just blew through anything that tried to stop him

agree with everything Nhex said

i'm still stuck on what the hell ezra and thrawn did for the 10 years they were stranded - they did separate immediately, or did they try to kill each other several times or...?

cause it doesn't make a lot of sense for ezra to not be doing anything while thrawn was working with the nightsisters and building his army. not that i need them to go into detail or anything, just one or two lines of explanation would've been nice

there were a lot of moments in ahsoka that were like that. i get that star wars has never been particularly character-driven but these new shows really do often feel like people moving from place to place and doing things just because the plot says so, or so they can be all like "LOOK AT THIS COOL THING/REFERENCE/FIGHT SCENE". I really like the cast too, so it's a bummer that the character with the most energy and personality on the show so far is robot David Tennant.

like that short scene between Huyang and Ezra was nice, would've appreciated a bit more of that

Ezra was clearly just hanging out with the dandy turtles, living his best life

I appreciated that! The Ahsoka/Anakin force dream episode was kind of all over the place, but the key question was really "What does it mean to be a jedi?" and she grew up where it purely meant being a warrior. Being an itinerant jedi and just hanging with the turtles and helping them out would definitely be jedi stuff

Sabine: I am finally on Peridea, where Ezra here has been trapped with a crazed monomaniac, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who'd like nothing more than to see Ezra dead. Tell us, how have you managed to stay alive all this time, Ezra?
Ezra: I like turtles.

TBF the animal force bonding thing is actually a key character trait for him going back to Rebels! it actually did make sense in a way, though i too hunger for details about what happened in those ten years which will probably be covered in some novel i'll never read

Real damn shame here:

https://gizmodo.com/shawna-trpcic-costume-designer-obituary-star-wars-1850909531

Basically all the Filoni/Filoni-adjacent TV series' work is her and her team. I know a couple of people who worked with her and my impression is she was truly great.

Meantime:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUs57-Cz2Pg

(Am I seeing a screening of this a week from Monday? Oh you bet I am!)

but will they be screening the actual special?