follow-the-white-loth-cat

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

imagine being ahsoka. you've survived order 66 and the siege of mandalore, and then 16 years later this teenage boy enthusiasticaly tells you "i brought help!". you wait to see who he found only for him to show up with fucking maul

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

Production stills showing fight rehearsals for the Qui-Gon/Darth Maul fight filmed on July 31, 1997, at Chott el Gharsa, Tozeur. Liam Neeson, Rob Inch (doubling for Qui-Gon Jinn when necessary), and Ray Park fought so vigorously that the aluminum lightsaber blades bent. - The Star Wars Archives Episodes I-III (1999-2005) by Paul Duncan

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

something about how Ezra has raised himself since he was 7 and lived only in survival mode. how his deepest fear is being alone. how he loves his found family so much and is scared to lose them. how he learns to attach securely and finds peace enough within himself to sacrifice himself for them. how he ends up stranded in a distant galaxy unable to get home. how when Sabine finds him on Peridea he isn't living the hermit lifestyle that we're used to for Jedi in exile. how in the midst of loneliness he has found community and, yes, they are hermit crab aliens who survive together and carry their homes with them - kinda like the Ghost.

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

something about how Kanan never knew his parents. how mesmerised he is by Hera's endless ability to care for those around her and how it inspires him to make a family with her. how Kanan glimpses what it's like to have and be a parent by parenting Ezra and Sabine. how Kanan holds Ezra's grief for his parents without knowing what it feels like but making sure he isn't alone. how Kanan is so much more emotionally open and affectionate with his padawan and his chosen family than we see any Jedi being. how Kanan and Hera's relationship is a cornerstone not a hindrance to his access to the Force. how over the course of the series he learns how to be a parent and how he is snatched away before his own biological child is born.

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

Andor had 12 episodes and genuinely that made a huge difference for being able to tell a complete season’s story

I do think probably for me the biggest takeaway from both Mando season 3 and Ahsoka is that the Disney+ shows desperately need to abandon the stupid ass 8-episode format already cause both shows feel like they're trying to do so much and just don't have the time to properly flesh it all out which results in some great setups with some pretty underwhelming payoffs. And really this applies to like every streaming service period like at this point I'm just so fucking sick of TV seasons that are less than 10 episodes long. Like we seriously need to go back to the days when serialized action shows had 13 episodes per season at the bare minimum I'm not kidding.

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

babylon 5 season 2 episode 15: in the shadow of z'ha'dum

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

Classic Jabba

Destroy them.

+ Bonus:

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

Is it just me, or does anyone else dislike how the star wars fandom brushes aside the ghost crew?

Like how in a episode full of moments of ezra's hubris, and kanans fear and BLINDING, all everyone focuses on is ahsoka and Vader's duel (still great just overplayed)

Or how thrawn is not just there to be cool and calculating, but as a foil to hera, as a contrast to show what it'd look like if hera continues to focus on what's most effective for the mission, not her love and passion for her people and her family.

Even non ghost crew characters have their other relationships forgotten like Rex's conflict with kanan or Hondo's becoming a kooky pirate uncle to ezra, for scenes of those characters reminiscing on their pasts.

It's frustrating.

#I see this happen all the time #specifically with the season 2 end ugh #rebels really is just seen as a vessel for the “more important stories

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

Ahsoka’s status as a child soldier really hits home now huh. I mean, we all knew that’s what she was, partially because of how many memes are out there about it - but now those memes feel a lot less funny. Like she is a baby. That is a baby getting shot at, hearing bombs dropping, killing people, being hardened by the adults who forced her to fight. Both she and Hera were babies in one war, witnessed babies having to fight against the Empire, and are desperately trying to prevent the new babies (like Jacen) from having to go through the same trauma. And she’s now been saved from Anakin twice by the children of the next generations.

#star wars #star wars rebels #ahsoka show #ahsoka #star wars ahsoka #my heart is breaking #star wars anakin #anakin skywalker #hera syndulla #jacen syndulla #ezra bridger #sabine wren

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

Honestly I loved episode three. I loved the gaping hole Kanan left in the narrative. He's a ghost, he's right there, he never existed, he never left.

When Hera talks to Mon Mothma and the senators and Mothma asks about Jacen, and Ezra is mentioned by name, but not Kanan. Just 'I lost people who were like family' and the only person she can be taking about is Kanan but he is unnamed. We know. She knows. But the others in the scene cant. And the republic wouldn't really want to acknowledge that loss. A Jedi died fighting for them, and his wife is begging for help to find their Jedi adoptive son and there 'isn't resources' because there is never fucking resources for anything that doesn't line the elites pockets because under the veneer of space opera, capitalism is rotting and always will be.

And when Hera is talking to Jacen, and he's been playing with Chopper when he should be with his Dad or Ezra learning Jedi stuff, and when he ways he wants to be a Jedi and it just hangs there and Hera tells him she knows. How many excuses has she come up with to keep him away from the Jedi stuff because its safer for him to let his talent burn out and she just can't loose another person to that. She can't go through it again. How long can she keep him safe from it? She can't. He is Kanan's son as much as hers. Ezra will come back, but at least Ezra will Know. Will have known Kanan. Know what Hera fears.

And when Ahsoka talks about the force with Sabine and she says the same things Kanan did, and Sabine doesn't stop her because how would Ahsoka know? She barely knew Kanan. When she trains Sabine with wooden weapons and its the same way Kanan did. And when they do the blind drills, and she should have been learning to fight blind from Kanan. Even the mask Sabine wears looks more like Kanan's mask from 'Twilight of the Apprentice' than any of the other helmets we see used for the same drill.

Kanan left this huge absence in the show, that only exists for those who knew him, both in universe and those who watched Rebels. And I just think its fucking beautiful.

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

NOBODY TOUCH ME, I'M EMOTIONAL about how they're starting the series off with how much Ezra's presence still looms over the story, that not just Ahsoka and Sabine are missing him, not just Hera misses him, but even HALF A DECADE LATER, after the Empire has fallen and the New Republic has risen up, the people of Lothal STILL remember Ezra and honor him, massive crows STILL turn out because THEY HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN LOTHAL'S SON WHO FREED THEIR WORLD.

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

Thinking about Andor and violence, and the way the show remains constantly aware of the aggressor/aggressed relationship in every interaction between the empire and the rebels; both in terms of the way in which the rebels’ violence towards the empire is expressed in moments of combat, and the way the empire is shown to be constantly exercising their aggression outside moments of combat.

Luthen invokes it his first conversation with Cassian – “the way they laugh, the way they push to a crowd. That voice telling you to stop, to go, to move.” He doesn’t talk away they torture or kill, he talks about the way they manage people, and how that management is achieved through a constant press of mild but unrelenting violence. Then it’s shown, like the TIE fighters on Aldhani. The way they just blast through the mountains, the size of them against the characters in the foreground. The pilot who flies over them when they’re preparing for the heist has no reason to think they’re anything other than shepherds, but he still flies as close and fast over their heads as he possibly can because he’s noticed them and wants them to know it. He doesn’t shoot, probably isn’t allowed if the garrison wants to maintain its veneer of civility. But he’s noticed them, so now he has to let them know that he could hurt them. Just flies overhead. If he happens to clip someone? If one of them gets caught in the wake turbulence and thrown into a tree? Not like he’d ever know or care. He doesn’t need to, as long as they know. Can’t let them forget that they’re only alive at the empire’s mercy.

Or in the prison, the way the guards never shut the fuck up when moving prisoners around – it’s a constant poke-poke of stop, go, stop, move, stand there, walk, stop. The very first introduction to the prison we’re given, when the head guard makes this big flex of “how can it be we can stand here without guns, just wait til I show you” so he can demonstrate the floors - it’s a show of confidence that’s proven almost immediately to be bullshit, because the guards are incapable of interacting with the prisoners without constantly grabbing them, hefting their giant tasers, shouting and pushing because they’re terrified that if they stop for half a second the prisoner might feel like a person again, and that alone would be enough to pose a threat.

Meanwhile, the violence of the rebels is shown as an exact inverse. It’s a subtle thing – often they’re active aggressors right back, often they throw the first punch or fire the first shot, but they’re almost always in some kind of vulnerable position when they do so. In the very first fight, Cassian doesn’t square off. He tells the guards about the credits in his pocket so they’ll come close, stays passive until they’re in headbutting range, and then he attacks. When the prisoners are preparing the breakout, they stay on program until the last possible moment, weapons hidden behind their backs as they comply. When Cinta stabs the ISB agent, she manages it because she backs up into an enclosed space and lets him corner her there. He never once considers that he’s not in control of the situation. His hands are down by his sides as he looms over her, and he doesn’t think to check where hers are until the knife’s already in his gut.

To me it’s a stunning textual representation of Nemik’s statement that tyranny requires constant effort. Think about Syril entering a random house during his manhunt and shooting at the first thing that moves, looking stone-cold terrified even through he’s the one with the big gun and the warrant, versus Cassian and Luthen escaping in the same episode by setting off a decoy first, allowing pretence of rolling over without a fight so they can slip away unimpeded. Think of the way the riot sparks off; not as soon as Maarva’s recording ends, not when the cop makes a paltry attempt at cutting off the transmission with his jacket, but when he gives up on nonviolence after that attempt fails and just kicks over the whole droid, even though he probably knows it’ll be the thing to blow the keg. He’s culturally incapable of doing anything else. Think of Wilmon, bringing a bomb to the riot that only works as well as it does because the empire showed up with crates on crates of grenades and then left them just sitting out in the street.

Wherever the rebels succeed, it’s where the empire fails to check what’s under the hammer before they swing. They rely on a constant wall of aggression and never bother to check the cracks in the foundation. Cassian says so – why would the prison guards bother spying on the prisoners when all they have to do is turn the floors on twice a day? Why would the garrison defend against an attack when they’re so sure no one’s stupid enough to try? Hell, fucking Dedra says so, spends the first half of the season clanging the alarm bell waiting for the rest of the ISB to catch on to what she’s already noticed.

The show never pretends that the empire’s violence isn’t overwhelming and devastating and almost inescapable, but what it does do is show the utility of taking moment to breathe. Plant your feet. Wait for your moment to strike. You don’t need to rely on lucky shots if you’re smart about where you aim.

Idk I just think it’s neat.

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

Seriously though. Upon every rewatch it becomes so clear how much love and energy was put into Ezra’s arc. Even as someone who likes Season 1 Ezra, to see him grow (at times so gradually it’s almost imperceptible) into a confident, deeply respectful leader is tear-jerking. And that’s the key with Ezra - he learns to have a level of respect for all things, regardless of their status, history, etc. Kanan and the Force, droids, animals and other living beings, art/philosophy and other intangible things that he used to blow off, people he disagrees with like Saw, even the Empire (as a real threat to be taken seriously, rather than just another set of rules to be disdained). He learns this by being connected to the Force, yes, but also through the rest of the Ghost Crew and truly the entire cast. Every character he meets is a lesson learned, and the combination of those lessons and the teachings his parents left behind is the young man we see in the finale. But every previous snapshot of Ezra (even when he’s annoying) is still critical to that final image.

Side note: Ezra’s maturity and leadership comes from his (developed) respect for being taught, and learning from everything. Although he and Thrawn are foils, this is what they have in common and why Ezra is the only one who can take him down.

each time i rewatch rebels my love for ezra bridger grows

#okay maybe not respect for stormtroopers #but at least he’s not forcing them to shoot their friends anymore #so improvements #star wars #rebels #ezra bridger #star wars rebels #i love him your honor #Ahsoka #ahsoka show #thrawn

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

My theory on this is that aliens (and women, for that matter) get sent to different prisons based on the various slave labor tasks the Empire thinks they are best suited for. Aliens might get sent to prisons on inhospitable planets for extractive industries, like the Wookiees being taken to the Kessel mines in the Rebels pilot. Maybe women get sent to prisons to do other labor (like sewing all the Imperial uniforms perhaps? If we’re looking at real-life gendered slave labor). I actually think having only human men on Narkina 5 was supposed to get our attention, especially since the courtroom Cassian was in had a whole bunch of diverse folks also waiting to be sentenced. We know the Empire is biased against aliens and probably women too, so it’s not a stretch

one thing i have noticed is that there’s a disappointing lack of non-human species. like why are all of the prisoners human? i get like maybe it’s a thing like they need human hands or something but humanoids have the same dexterity so idk if that’s a valid reason. i just wonder if it wasn’t thought about very much at all.

#star wars andor #cassian andor #narkina 5 #star wars rebels #andor #star wars

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

bonnie burstow / the mothma family, andor

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

I saw a Star Wars argument on Reddit (I know, off to a great start) where one of the things people were complaining about is that Thrawn isn't actually smart in Rebels - he's just the only one with common sense. I can understand why this is disappointing if you've read more Thrawn literature. But apart from the fact that Rebels is written with a younger audience in mind, I think it's actually the point.

Andor and Rebels really portray a biting image of the average Imperial officer - and by that I mean they're pretty stupid. Does it conveniently help the Ghost Crew get out of sticky situations? Did it help Cinta find the plant on Ferrix? Sure, but I think the point is actually to demonstrate what type of officers and officials the Empire encourages. They don't want officers who exercise common sense or logic; they don't want creative thought; they certainly don't want decision-makers who think for themselves.

Tyranny requires constant control over the population - but it also requires constant control over your own people. If every officer was taught to be like Thrawn, to analyze art and psychology and consider cultural context, a lot of them wouldn't be Imperials.

The "wiping the taste of Aldhani out" line really demonstrates that Palapatine's goal is still not for "his people" to rule the galaxy, it's for him to rule. Although officers like Thrawn and Dedra are crucial to the functioning of the Empire, it's a deep institutional force to get and retain officers who 1) will be deeply, deeply cruel and/or callous to the suffering of others, 2) will follow any orders in the hope of working their way up the ranks, and 3) are usually not the best independent thinkers. Contrast this with the Imperial propaganda machine that says they are recruiting the "best and brightest", and now you have a workforce with a major ego without any of the skills to back it up.

The reason Thrawn and Dedra are different is because they had to fight for their position - they were not naturally privileged in the Empire's system as an alien and a woman from a lower-status former job. Sabine was probably being groomed for a similar role, but like many of the actual "best and brightest" she left. Note too how Kallus becomes remarkably more competent and effective as soon as he divorces himself from the Imperial thought machine. The Empire lives because of the people who crawl their way to the top but would never, ever admit it because then the facade used to prop up the foundation of the Empire (people like Syril) would collapse.

#united states who #it's not like our empire is doing the same thing or anything #rebellions are built on hope #empires are built on ego #star wars andor #andor #dedra meero #grand admiral thrawn #syril karn #star wars rebels #ghost crew #emperor palpatine #sabine wren

[follow-the-white-loth-cat]

Among everything else that Andor has me thinking about, I cannot stop mulling over what it means that the show bears Maarva’s name. Yes we all know Cassian Andor, but he inherited that name from his mother who loved him more than anything he could do wrong, and technically dealt the first blow on Ferrix (I’m gonna talk about that brick in another post).

The same way that the Skywalkers bear Shmi’s name, Cassian and the rebellion by proxy bear Maarva’s.