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00:00 Welcome back to New Rock Stars, I'm Eric Voss,
00:02 and this is a breakdown of Star Wars Ahsoka Episode One,
00:04 Master and Apprentice.
00:05 Yet another Star Wars moment that makes Qui-Gon Jinn
00:08 wish he was born just a few years later
00:09 for medical technology to heal stab wounds.
00:12 I am loving this series so far.
00:14 It's doing some interesting stuff with Star Wars lore.
00:16 I got some theories, folks.
00:18 My Easter egg breakdown of Episode Two
00:19 will come to this channel tomorrow,
00:21 and me and Tommy's Wookiee Leaks discussion
00:23 of Episodes One and Two are over on the Break Room channel.
00:25 Please subscribe to that channel.
00:27 And the SAG-AFTRA has informed us
00:28 that entertainment journalists like New Rock Stars
00:30 are allowed to cover movies and TV shows like this
00:32 during the strike, but we support these unions
00:33 in getting a fair deal from the AMPTP.
00:35 All right, let's get started.
00:36 We open with a red Lucasfilm logo
00:39 with some amazing music from composer Kevin Kiner.
00:41 (dramatic music)
00:44 Kiner composed all the music for Clone Wars and Rebels,
00:50 but often what you heard on those shows
00:51 were just leitmotifs to John Williams' Star Wars themes,
00:53 but in some rare moments, especially in the later years,
00:56 Kiner's true talent really came out.
00:58 (dramatic music)
01:02 And here, there's this unusual percussion.
01:04 Framing the story of Ahsoka is what I consider to be
01:07 a story of witchcraft and astrology,
01:09 way more than I expected.
01:11 Whereas normally the Lucasfilm fanfare
01:13 has a mix of red and blue lights
01:15 flashing over the metallic heads,
01:16 now it is only the color red.
01:18 We see the mask of Vader, then C-3PO,
01:21 then a clone trooper helmet.
01:23 Could we get a Rex cameo this season?
01:25 Then the head of an HK assassin droid,
01:28 then the helmet of Barok,
01:29 that's the mysterious new Inquisitor
01:30 who joins Bailin and Shin,
01:32 then Hu Yang, then a storm trooper, then Chopper,
01:35 and then finally the Mandalorian night owl T-visor design
01:38 of the helmet of Sabine Wren.
01:39 Red is also the color of a new take
01:41 on the Star Wars opening crawl, which is incredible.
01:44 It's red instead of yellow,
01:45 and rather than bending backward into space,
01:47 it just scrolls upward.
01:48 So why the difference?
01:49 Why the prominence of the color red here?
01:51 Well, I think it's because we are in a dark era
01:54 where a new narrative is being written.
01:55 It's not a story of ragtag Resisters
01:57 bringing down an evil Goliath.
01:59 Here, the good guys start the story in charge,
02:01 and they are letting control slip away
02:03 to the forces of evil.
02:04 Now, this opening crawl catches us up
02:05 with who Ahsoka is, who Morgan Elspeth is,
02:07 and who Thrawn is.
02:08 Now, I've made some other videos about Thrawn,
02:10 but he is awesome.
02:11 Come from Timothy Zahn's 1991
02:13 Heir to the Empire Thrawn trilogy,
02:15 a character who has brought back into Star Wars Rebels,
02:17 an animation voiced by Lars Mikkelsen,
02:19 who will play the character on this show.
02:20 He's a blue-skinned Chiss, an Imperial Admiral,
02:23 a brilliant individual.
02:25 We last saw him at the end of Rebels
02:26 when he and Jedi Ezra Bridger
02:28 were zipped out to hyperspace
02:29 by a pod of Purrgill hyperspace whales.
02:32 And just so we're all clear,
02:33 Purrgill, P-U-R-R-G-I-L, is plural.
02:36 You don't say Purrgills.
02:37 Just a group of them is called Purrgill.
02:39 It's okay, we're all kind of on a learning curve
02:41 with this show.
02:41 And remember Morgan Elspeth is that Beskar spear-toting woman
02:44 that Ahsoka Tano dueled on Corvus in the Mandalorian,
02:46 which ended with Ahsoka saying,
02:48 "Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?"
02:50 And, oof, if we have to do this,
02:51 Ahsoka Tano is the ex-Jedi
02:53 from the Clone Wars animated series,
02:54 the apprentice to Anakin Skywalker,
02:55 who left the Jedi Order
02:56 after being wrongfully accused of a Jedi Temple bombing.
02:59 And she later came back in Star Wars Rebels
03:01 as the Rebel agent codenamed Fulcrum
03:03 who joined the crew of the Ghost.
03:04 Look, if this is all new information to you,
03:06 we are in the middle of a Rebels recap series.
03:08 Be sure to watch those.
03:10 Okay, we see a round-hold ship
03:11 with new Republic insignia passing beneath us.
03:14 Not over our heads, but beneath us.
03:16 This vessel is from the Mon Calamari fleet.
03:18 We saw Mon Calamari ships like this in Return of the Jedi.
03:21 That's why the bridge has the same swivel chair
03:23 that we saw Admiral Ackbar sitting in
03:24 and in Rogue One, Admiral Raddus sitting in.
03:26 Captain Hale is played by Mark Rolston,
03:28 who played Drake in Aliens.
03:30 And First Officer Jensen Corbett
03:32 is played by Shakira Barrera, aka Yo-Yo from GLOW.
03:35 And the Navigator droid is voiced by Bonnie Wilde,
03:37 who worked in the sound department for the Mandalorian.
03:39 - They're early.
03:40 - It isn't home one.
03:42 - Home one was Admiral Ackbar's flagship
03:44 in Return of the Jedi,
03:45 and apparently continues
03:46 as the New Republic's fleet flagship to this day.
03:48 They called it home because Mon Calamari
03:50 converted their aquatic cities into starships
03:52 for the Rebel fleet.
03:53 The approaching ship is an Eta-class shuttle,
03:56 which is significant because these were used
03:57 as Jedi ambassador shuttles during the Clone Wars.
04:00 It approaches the Mon Calamari ship now
04:02 with its down-facing wings framed
04:03 to look like it is closing in on this ship
04:06 with a vice grip.
04:07 The comms officer reports,
04:08 - They're Jedi.
04:09 - And I like how that astromech droid
04:10 turned and said too, like, "Wait the (beep)."
04:12 This episode is titled Master and Apprentice,
04:14 referring to these hooded visitors.
04:16 And yes, they do recall Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan
04:18 visiting the Trade Federation ship
04:20 at the beginning of The Phantom Menace.
04:21 They are visiting Jedi,
04:22 but there is something off about them.
04:24 They use Jedi hardware, Jedi clearance codes,
04:26 but they are not Jedi.
04:27 Since Balin survived the Purge, we learn later
04:29 that could explain how he has old Jedi clearance codes.
04:32 Their names are Balin Skoll and Shin Hati,
04:35 which is significant because Skoll and Hati
04:37 are the names of the wolves in Norse mythology
04:39 who chase the sun and the moon across the sky
04:42 in hopes of devouring them.
04:43 Just like these two hunt a star map,
04:45 a star map line with loath wolves
04:47 to chart their course across the stars.
04:49 Throughout this video, I will be pointing out
04:50 the significance of wolf imagery
04:52 because I think these names were chosen by design.
04:55 Balin is played by the late Ray Stevenson.
04:57 He passed away earlier this year,
04:58 and it's super sad because he is so good on this show.
05:01 That's why this episode ends with, for our friend, Ray.
05:03 Balin Skoll is an old Jedi who, based on his age,
05:06 would have been a contemporary with Anakin Skywalker.
05:08 His apprentice, Shin Hati, has a Padawan brave,
05:11 telling us that despite them not being Jedi,
05:13 he does train her in the Jedi tradition.
05:15 They carry lightsabers, not the color red, but orange.
05:18 It's a sum of distinction, but it is intentional.
05:20 They've only chose this to indicate that they aren't Sith
05:23 who carry red blades, they are something in between.
05:25 As Shin slashes through these New Republic officers,
05:27 in the foreground, you see one poor officer
05:29 fumbling for that blaster in his holster.
05:31 These smug New Republic officers
05:32 just were not expecting to fight.
05:33 In the background of this hangar,
05:34 you can see New Republic X-Wings and A-Wings,
05:37 and they're painted blue,
05:38 perhaps indicating that the Blue Squadron
05:40 is back in commission since the Battle of Skarak.
05:42 Balin confirms, "We are no Jedi."
05:45 If you watch "Rebels," you know that this line
05:47 is hugely important to Ahsoka,
05:49 who had a similar line in her epic duel with Vader
05:51 in the season two finale.
05:52 - Anakin Skywalker was weak.
05:55 I destroyed him.
05:57 - Then I will avenge his death.
06:00 - Revenge is not the Jedi way.
06:03 - I am no Jedi.
06:05 - This show clearly wants us to draw a parallel
06:07 between Ahsoka and Balin.
06:09 One master who gave up on her apprentice
06:11 because she saw the nightmare extreme of the Jedi way,
06:13 one master who thinks that he actually can do it right,
06:16 but just doing it his own way, with orange.
06:18 Kevin Kiner uses dramatic piano chords
06:20 to score Balin's slaughter.
06:22 (dramatic music)
06:25 It's so good, and Balin never stops moving,
06:32 like Vader in the Rogue One Kill Box sequence.
06:34 Vader also incorporated a levitating force choke.
06:37 Balin even uses the force to unlock a scomp link,
06:39 which are normally so complicated
06:41 only an astromech can crack them.
06:42 This guy has clearly mastered the ways of the force
06:44 in ways that we haven't seen since Vader,
06:46 or I guess arguably Luke Skywalker.
06:47 Morgan Elspeth's prisoner jumpsuit
06:49 is numbered in Orbesh 620, and she says--
06:52 - Balin, you are true to your word.
06:55 - And well paid for it, Lady Morgan.
06:57 - So it sounds like Morgan set up some mercenaries
06:59 to break her out if she were ever captured.
07:01 Okay, onto Ahsoka Tano.
07:03 She explores ruins on a planet that we later learn
07:06 is called Arkana, structures built
07:07 by Morgan Elspeth's ancestors, we learn,
07:10 the Nightsisters of Dathomir.
07:12 Morgan Elspeth is a Nightsister of Dathomir,
07:14 and this is a huge deal.
07:15 The Nightsisters refer to a sect of magic-wielding
07:17 female Dathomirians that included Maul's mother,
07:20 Mother Talzin, this coven, used their green sorcery
07:23 to reanimate his legs, and the Nightsisters are awesome.
07:26 Dave Filoni based them on the witches of Dathomir
07:28 from Dave Wolverton's 1994 legends novel
07:30 "The Courtship of Princess Leia,"
07:32 but the character of the sorceress Charaal
07:33 from the 1985 TV movie "Ewoks, Battle of Endor"
07:36 was later retconned into a Nightsister
07:38 from the illustrated "Star Wars" universe.
07:39 So technically, they've been with us for some time.
07:41 The legends term was technically the witches of Dathomir.
07:44 With "Star Wars" clone wars,
07:45 they were called the Nightsisters,
07:46 but they were considered to be the same thing,
07:48 and then in 2022, in the book of "Boba Fett Chapter 3,"
07:50 Danny Trejo's character, the Rancor Tamer,
07:52 started talking about the history of Rancors,
07:54 and he said this.
07:55 - It's said that the witches of Dathomir
07:58 even rode them through the forest in fens.
08:00 - So making Morgan Elspeth a Nightsister
08:02 reframes her character from a samurai-inspired warrior
08:06 and military leader that just supports Thrawn
08:07 into more of a mystic figure
08:09 who practices a different kind of sorcery
08:11 than the Jedi or the Sith use,
08:13 one might argue, an older form of magic,
08:15 which is very, very interesting for this show.
08:17 It's going beyond the Jedi and Sith legend.
08:19 These arcana structures were built by ancient Nightsisters,
08:22 and three giant figures with bare feet
08:24 align with the three inside the temple,
08:26 and they are all dressed in the same kind of hooded garb
08:28 that we saw Mother Talzin wearing.
08:30 These ruins, you'll notice, are covered in these black sands,
08:32 which at first I thought might be volcanic soil,
08:34 but the way it ignites later
08:36 makes me think it's kind of a black powder,
08:37 maybe powdered rhidonium.
08:39 The whole place was clearly rigged to blow up
08:40 and keep its secrets from being found,
08:42 and you'll notice the sphere she finds
08:43 is buried in the same material.
08:45 The Nightsisters planned for, perhaps,
08:47 this map to never be found.
08:48 Alternatively, this substance might be the ashes of malachor,
08:52 which we see on malachor in the "Rebels" season two finale.
08:55 They are made of the burnt and pulverized bones
08:57 of the Jedi and Sith who fought there
08:58 and wiped themselves out.
08:59 These ashes are inhaled by Siths to imbue this Sith
09:02 with the dark essence trapped within the remains.
09:04 Yeah, it's really messed up, but it is awesome.
09:06 Again, watch "Rebels."
09:07 Ahsoka does this awesome move of using the Force
09:10 to spin her lightsabers through the ground around her
09:12 and dropping herself on that disc to the level below,
09:14 and she did the same move to escape the clone troopers
09:17 in the "Clone Wars" season seven finale
09:18 on that crashing ship.
09:19 On the walls of this temple are engravings
09:21 of constellations, the three Nightsisters,
09:23 and these spheres that two are holding,
09:25 one is levitating, and again, three of them,
09:28 mirroring the three witches, the Weird Sisters of Macbeth,
09:31 which get referenced in the title of episode two,
09:33 "Toil and Trouble."
09:34 Ahsoka lines up these rotating pedestals,
09:36 reminding us of like "The Fifth Element"
09:37 or a puzzle that you'd play in the "Tomb Raider" games.
09:39 Now, if Thrawn was lost in just the past decade,
09:42 why would a star map to his location
09:44 be buried in an ancient temple thousands of years prior?
09:47 Obviously, this map points to a location
09:49 Thrawn just ended up at.
09:50 Thrawn didn't just go to a where,
09:52 he went to a when, I think,
09:53 and the pathway to that when where
09:55 was lost thousands of years ago.
09:57 In fact, Elspeth's interest in Thrawn
09:59 might have come from Thrawn being mentioned
10:00 in old Nightsister bedtime stories that she grew up with.
10:03 Could Thrawn end up being this like 1885
10:05 Dr. Emmett Brown figure
10:07 that all the people at the post office were taking bets on?
10:09 Ahsoka rises to find HK assassin droids waiting for her.
10:12 Remember, Morgan Elspeth used these on Corvus,
10:14 in that "Mandalorian" episode,
10:15 but the way that first one was just frozen in place
10:17 the moment Ahsoka hopped up is so creepy.
10:19 Like it was creeping forward right until it was seen,
10:21 like you have to keep your eyes on it
10:23 or it will rush at you.
10:24 They fight and these droids end up activating
10:26 these thermal detonators in their chest
10:27 just like they did on Corvus,
10:29 and Ahsoka has to run for it
10:30 and catches up with her T6 shuttle.
10:31 Piloting it is Hu Yang, the Mark IV architect droid
10:34 from the Jedi ship, the Crucible,
10:36 who appeared in "Clone Wars" as a professor
10:37 who taught young Jedi about lightsabers and kyber crystals.
10:40 I love that Ahsoka somehow tracked him down
10:42 all these years after the purge.
10:43 He's voiced by David Tennant,
10:45 so forgive me if I at times refer to him as Dr. Hu Yang.
10:48 Now, real quick, we wanna say thanks to Spin Master
10:50 for sponsoring this video,
10:51 as well as introduce their new brand 4D Build,
10:55 featuring licensed 3D Star Wars puzzles.
10:57 4D Build makes detailed cardstock 3D puzzle model kits.
11:01 If you're a Star Wars superfan who dicks puzzles
11:03 or wants to add your museum of Star Wars collectibles,
11:05 you will love these.
11:07 Everything you need to build a 3D puzzle comes in the box.
11:09 You're not gonna have to go hunt down a tiny screwdriver
11:11 or anything like that.
11:12 Each box contains a set of cardstock puzzle sheets,
11:14 instructions, and a bottle of glue just in case.
11:17 The instructions are super clear and easy to follow,
11:19 and in about two to three hours,
11:20 you can have a finished R2 unit.
11:22 Now, bigger puzzles take longer,
11:24 but you know what they say,
11:24 the Death Star wasn't built in a day.
11:26 Destroyed in one, sure, but not built.
11:28 There's so much attention to detail,
11:30 and the puzzles are super sturdy when they're done.
11:32 They are designed with replica-level detail
11:34 and made for showing off,
11:35 which is why every model comes with a display stand.
11:37 To get a 4D Build Star Wars puzzle model kit of your own,
11:41 just click the link in the description below
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11:44 For as little as $15,
11:46 you can start your own Star Wars puzzle collection today.
11:49 I love the detail of the atmospheric moisture
11:50 on the cockpit canopy.
11:51 Makes it all just feel so real.
11:53 Ahsoka reminds Hu Yang
11:54 that the Jedi Order does not exist anymore,
11:56 and Hu Yang asked her how she got Elspeth
11:58 to confess the location of this map.
11:59 - Let's just say I didn't follow standard Jedi protocol.
12:03 - Yikes, sounds like Ahsoka
12:04 might have tortured it out of Elspeth.
12:06 Perhaps using that Force torture
12:08 that Kylo Ren uses in "The Force Awakens."
12:09 They get this call.
12:11 - Fulcrum, this is Home One.
12:12 Do you copy?
12:13 Over.
12:14 - Ah, their call sign is Fulcrum,
12:15 which was Ahsoka's rebel code name during "Rebels."
12:18 On their approach to Home One,
12:19 they pass three X-Wings,
12:20 which I'm just gonna assume are the ones
12:22 piloted by Trapper Wolf, Jib Dodger, and Sash Ketter,
12:24 because the cameo trio,
12:25 Dave Filoni, Rick Famigliua, and Deborah Chow
12:28 always shows up in these titles.
12:29 Ahsoka's T-6 soars past Home One,
12:31 matching the framing of Lando
12:33 piloting the Falcon past Home One
12:35 in the Battle of Endor in "Return of the Jedi."
12:36 Inside this hangar,
12:37 Ahsoka is greeted by General Hera Syndulla,
12:39 the Twi'lek Captain of the Ghosts and Rebels
12:41 here played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
12:42 She wears a Phoenix Squadron patch on her sleeve,
12:45 as in "Rebels" season two,
12:46 the Ghost Crew joined the Phoenix Squadron
12:47 and Hera was promoted to the leader of it,
12:49 and the back of her jacket
12:50 shows the Ghost Crew Specter II patch.
12:52 Hu Yang turns to look in shock
12:54 at the Teal Navigation Protocol droid
12:55 that Shin Hati presumably sliced.
12:57 We saw this droid in the opening scene.
12:58 And as we'll see in episode two,
12:59 Hu Yang shares 3PO's sense of mortality.
13:01 They meet in one of the Mon Calamari council rooms
13:03 that we saw Mon Mothma giving a briefing in
13:05 "Return of the Jedi" with the same circular benches.
13:07 Ahsoka tells Hera that the map
13:09 contains the location of Thrawn,
13:10 whom Hera thought died in the Battle of Lothal,
13:12 but Ahsoka said it was never confirmed.
13:13 - If Thrawn survived, does that mean Ezra?
13:16 - Yes, they are recapping the finale of "Rebels"
13:18 when both Ezra and Thrawn disappeared with the Purgle.
13:21 Up until this point, Hera thought both of them were dead.
13:23 This Mon Calamari officer reports.
13:24 - General, the defense council
13:26 is requesting an update on the incident.
13:28 - Now this is not Admiral Ackbar.
13:30 Admiral Ackbar didn't have this blue color,
13:32 and this officer has a patch with a single dot on it,
13:34 which means first officer, lieutenant.
13:35 But this character does sound like him.
13:37 We should note that Eric Bowersfield passed away in 2016.
13:39 Okay, onto the planet Lothal,
13:41 the recurring setting of the "Rebels" series.
13:43 We see Governor Ryder Azadi giving a speech.
13:45 Ryder Azadi was a prisoner in Lothal in season two,
13:48 but broke out, who knew Ezra's parents
13:50 and joined the Rebel cause.
13:51 He was voiced by Clancy Brown,
13:52 who plays him in live action here.
13:54 Also on this dais is Senator Jai Kell,
13:56 another character from "Rebels,"
13:57 the cadet in the Lothal Imperial Academy
13:59 alongside Ezra Bridger.
14:00 Kell was believed to be Force-sensitive.
14:01 Vinnie Thomas plays him here,
14:02 but the animated version was voiced
14:03 by "Ruvio" actor Dante Bosco.
14:05 They are standing in front of this
14:06 commemorative mural.
14:07 We saw this in the final scene of "Rebels."
14:09 Sabine Wren painted it.
14:10 She's quite the artist.
14:11 And it is the same exact 2D illustration.
14:14 It depicts the whole Ghost crew,
14:15 Hera, Sabine, Ezra, Kanan Jarrus, Zeb, and Chopper,
14:18 both cats, and we see two Loth wolves.
14:21 Two of them, one light, one dark.
14:23 Could this mirror Skull and Hati
14:25 as the wolves of Norse mythology?
14:27 Are they, in a way,
14:28 fighting on the same side of the Ghost crew?
14:30 So Ryder asks Jai Kell, "Where is she?"
14:33 Actually, I think you can see Sabine's speeder bike
14:35 in the lower right in the far distance
14:36 in the background on the ground there.
14:37 Okay, sent to some rock music
14:39 that is definitely not common for "Star Wars,"
14:40 Sabine Wren, played by Natasha Leo Bordizzo,
14:43 speeds down this lowfall highway.
14:44 She's wearing this helmet with some Loth-cat drawings
14:47 and the Orbesh letters of B, A, E, and B, or babe.
14:52 She also has a Phoenix Squadron patch on her jacket,
14:54 though later in her box in her home,
14:56 there is another Phoenix Squadron patch,
14:57 which I wonder might be Ezra's.
14:59 Meanwhile, the Orbesh on the traffic overhangs
15:00 reads "Caution," and then later, "Sector 7."
15:03 Sabine is chased by two E-Wings.
15:05 Now, previously, these only showed up
15:06 in Legends literature.
15:07 First introduced in the "Dark Empire" comic,
15:09 they were known as escort shuttles
15:10 introduced during Thrawn's campaign
15:12 to rebuild the fallen empire.
15:13 Sabine seems to have a familiar relationship
15:15 with this pilot, and notice his call sign is "Spectre 2-1."
15:18 So Spectre was how the crew of the Ghosts
15:20 numbered themselves.
15:20 Sabine was Spectre 5, Kanan Jarrus was Spectre 1,
15:23 Harris Syndulla was Spectre 2,
15:24 Chopper, Spectre 3, Zeb was Spectre 4,
15:26 Ezra was Spectre 6, and then later on,
15:28 Hera and Kanan's son, Jason, was Spectre 7.
15:30 So it seems like they've continued that tradition
15:32 with all the Lothal pilots.
15:33 The astromech droid that shorts out
15:34 is actually based on the vintage R2-D2 toy from Kenner
15:37 with the teardrop indents for the red and the blue eyepieces.
15:40 Really, really fun Easter egg there.
15:41 Sabine lives in a communication tower
15:43 that looks like Ezra's roost, Lothal Net Com Tower E-272.
15:47 Seems like she's just moved into the home
15:49 that he started the series in.
15:50 On the walls, she's painted several Stormtrooper helmets
15:52 that have been X'd out.
15:53 You can also see some drawings of Loth-Cats,
15:55 Loth-Wolves, Chopper, and some stacked stones.
15:57 It might be a nod to her Jedi training
15:59 of having to stack stones,
16:00 like Yoda did with Luke on Dagobah.
16:02 And we learned that she is kept as a pet.
16:04 My favorite character in the series, this spotted Loth-Cat,
16:06 which looks like a mix of VFX and the wide shots,
16:09 but in closeups, a practical puppet,
16:11 which is similar to the mix of VFX and puppetry
16:13 that brought Grogu to life.
16:14 Just like Grogu, I want one of these things.
16:16 Loth-Cats, a reminder, are native to Lothal.
16:18 We actually saw one in live action
16:19 growling at Grogu in the Mandalorian.
16:21 As Sabine feeds this furball,
16:22 in the foreground under the table collecting dust
16:24 is her old Mandalorian helmet.
16:26 Sabine came from the Mandalorian house Vizsla
16:28 and served as an Imperial weapons specialist
16:29 before she defected, but her family on Cronus
16:32 remained loyal to the Empire.
16:33 She briefly wielded the Darksaber.
16:35 She got trained by Kanan in season three,
16:37 but she handed off the Darksaber to Bo-Katan Kryze.
16:39 Sabine had always kept her hair short
16:41 because her scalp would get hot under the helmet.
16:42 So the fact that her hair has grown out now
16:44 tells us that she's left that warrior life behind.
16:46 She plays a Holly recording from Ezra Bridger,
16:48 who's played in the series by Iman Esfandi.
16:50 - Sorry for disappearing on you.
16:52 As a Jedi, sometimes you have to make the decision
16:55 no one else can.
16:56 We're not really family, but you're like a sister to me.
17:01 I know your fight isn't over,
17:03 and now I won't be there to help you.
17:05 I'm counting on you to see this through.
17:07 - Oh, wow.
17:08 So like Tony Stark in "Avengers Endgame,"
17:10 Ezra Bridger knew what he was about to do,
17:12 make a sacrifice play with Ron in the Purgle,
17:14 and he took a moment to make a goodbye recording
17:16 before that final fight.
17:17 I like the detail how he rubs his head
17:18 when he says, "We're not really family,"
17:20 because that wasn't just a recurring thing in "Rebels."
17:22 All these members of the Ghost crew had their own families
17:25 that they were either running away from
17:26 or dying to get back to, yet they still loved each other.
17:29 And clearly, Ezra doesn't want to insert himself
17:31 in between Sabine and her family.
17:32 Morgan Elspeth tells Shin that she's a night sister
17:34 of Dathomir.
17:35 - You're a witch.
17:36 A survivor.
17:39 - Damn.
17:40 So Elspeth rejects the pejorative
17:41 of someone who would use sorcery for whims,
17:43 instead reframes the idea of being a night sister
17:45 as a believer who holds closer dogma
17:48 in order to survive over the ages,
17:49 someone who has survived in the way that the Jedi
17:51 and the Sith have not survived.
17:53 Shin still doesn't trust it, though.
17:54 - What thread is she spinning?
17:56 - Oh, it's not witchcraft.
17:57 - Yes, Elspeth is obsessed with the idea of fate
17:59 and prophecy, and spinning thread comes
18:01 from the Greek archetype of spiders
18:03 and the fate spinning thread
18:05 and weaving the tapestry of the future.
18:06 But Balin, notice, no longer sees it
18:08 as a bogus superstition.
18:10 But with Balin is an Inquisitor
18:11 who we still know little about, Merak.
18:13 Their helmet is similar to that of the Eighth Brother
18:15 in the "Rebels" season two finale.
18:17 That character supposedly died,
18:18 but reminder that Inquisitors are Jedi hunters
18:20 recruited by Darth Vader and Palpatine after the Purge,
18:22 all of them former Jedi,
18:23 to hunt down all the other Jedi refugees
18:25 that are still in hiding.
18:26 We know this one's an Inquisitor
18:27 because all Inquisitors carry this round,
18:29 hilted lightsaber that spins like this.
18:31 Sabine dreams about Ezra, and we hear his voice saying.
18:34 (eerie music)
18:36 And if you look closely in the corner of this room behind her
18:42 are some Stormtrooper helmets,
18:43 including a few Scout Trooper helmets.
18:45 They kind of look like the ones Zeb stole for Ezra
18:47 from that Scout Trooper who jumped on board the Ghost.
18:49 - The kid wants your helmet, sorry.
18:51 - They also wore some Scout Trooper helmets
18:53 when they first went into the Jedi Temple on Lothal.
18:55 There's just a lot of different instances
18:57 that they would have these from.
18:58 This shot of Sabine looking out from the comms tower
19:00 at the two X-Wings in Ahsoka's T6
19:02 mirrors the opening shot of "Ezra" in "Rebels"
19:04 season one, episode one,
19:05 when he looked out at the Star Destroyer
19:07 that arrived to Lothal.
19:08 Writer Azadi scolds Sabine.
19:09 - You were missed, Sabine.
19:11 Everyone was there.
19:12 - Not everyone.
19:14 - Yeah, Sabine skipped the ceremony
19:15 because it didn't feel right without Ezra there.
19:17 Kevin Kiner doesn't staple John Williams' themes exactly,
19:19 but he does include some riffs that evoke it,
19:21 like he does here.
19:22 (dramatic music)
19:25 Sabine reenters the T6,
19:32 and Kevin Kiner includes some sweet flute
19:34 and clarinet and bell chimes,
19:36 which really is just some classic John Williams tones
19:39 that you hear in movies like "E.T."
19:40 Her bunk includes drawings of more Loth-Cats and Chopper,
19:42 some stacked stones, and some TIE fighters.
19:44 "Rebels" ended with Ahsoka rejoining Sabine
19:46 to go off in search of Ezra Bridger,
19:48 but now it's a play that Ahsoka taught Sabine
19:50 in the Jedi ways, and it didn't go too well.
19:52 - You never made things easy for me, Master.
19:55 - There is nothing easy about being a Jedi.
19:58 - Yeah, Ahsoka knows this quite well.
19:59 All her Jedi relationships ended in tragedy.
20:01 So Sabine steals the map
20:03 and gets tracked by Shin's probe droid,
20:05 reminding us of Maul tracking Qui-Gon in "Phantom Menace."
20:07 Meanwhile, Hera tells Ahsoka.
20:09 - I bet your master found you difficult at times.
20:11 - Anakin never got to finish my training.
20:13 Before the end of the Clone Wars,
20:14 I walked away from him and the Jedi.
20:17 - The framing of this shot,
20:18 with Hera's projection behind Ahsoka's shoulder,
20:20 mirrors the framing of Ahsoka in the Lothal Jedi Temple
20:23 in "Rebels" season two, episode 18,
20:24 when Anakin's ghostly form appeared over that same shoulder
20:27 and turned into Vader.
20:28 And finally, here, she began to come to terms
20:29 with the fact that her parting ways with the Anakin
20:31 was followed almost immediately
20:33 by Anakin's fall to the dark side.
20:34 And that is guilt she carries with her to this day.
20:37 Sabine inspects the map's sphere
20:38 and deduces that the three witch statues
20:40 align with this three-pronged symbol,
20:42 realizing that the map's key is contained within it,
20:44 and uses this Rubik's Cube twist-in of its different faces
20:47 to realign it and activate it.
20:49 So again, significance of the number three.
20:52 Three witches, three faces.
20:53 Three is the witch's number.
20:54 It's also the number of the Divine Trinity
20:56 in the "Star Wars" mythology of the father,
20:58 the daughter, and the son of Mortis.
21:00 With this map decoded, it projects around the sphere
21:03 the galaxy they are currently in
21:04 with a path to another galaxy.
21:07 Episode two explores this path to Peridia a bit more,
21:09 and I'll get more into it in tomorrow's breakdown.
21:11 But just to tease my theory,
21:12 I think this map was built by the Rakatan invaders,
21:15 an ancient civilization far predating
21:17 the Jedi and the Sith.
21:18 So they explored a nice little republic
21:20 with star maps in that game,
21:21 and the path of the Pergil could lead back through time
21:24 to the Rakatans.
21:25 I would roll my eyes at this theory,
21:26 but the Lucasfilm team inserted a Rakatan Easter egg
21:29 in Andor.
21:30 Andor, of all things.
21:31 They want us to think about the Rakatan invaders.
21:33 Sabine gets attacked by these HK droids.
21:35 They steal the map.
21:36 They blast her shit.
21:37 She runs into Shin Hati,
21:38 and she ignites the green lightsaber of Ezra Bridger.
21:41 Sabine even starts patiently,
21:43 standing at the ready position,
21:44 just as Ezra taught her to do with the darksaber,
21:46 but Shin is more patient.
21:48 She lets Sabine charge first.
21:50 Big mistake, Sabine.
21:51 Notice how Sabine uses these desperate
21:53 overhead chopping motions,
21:54 leaving herself vulnerable,
21:56 and she tries to rush to the end of the fight
21:57 with just one power blow.
21:59 Mm-mm-mm.
22:00 I mean, to be fair to Sabine,
22:01 this is the first time she's picked up a lightsaber in years,
22:03 and Shin, we just saw at the beginning of this episode,
22:05 got a whole warmup round of new republic officers
22:07 with clumsy trigger fingers.
22:08 And throughout this fight,
22:09 notice how Shin fights Sabine closer and closer
22:12 and closer to the ground
22:13 until she stabs her through the side.
22:14 I guess missing vital organs,
22:16 because even after the stab,
22:17 Sabine continued slashing,
22:18 which I guess is the show's way of saying,
22:19 "Nah, she's okay, she'll bounce back."
22:21 But either way,
22:22 this apprentice lost the battle of apprentices,
22:23 because on the good side,
22:24 the master and apprentice are still separate,
22:26 and they're facing a master and apprentice
22:28 who have had a lot more time together trusting each other.
22:30 So I love these closing credits.
22:32 They show golden lines on a star map.
22:34 This is the path to Peridia
22:35 that gets talked about in episode two.
22:37 It's passing through constellations
22:38 and words in an ancient language.
22:40 They pass a loath wolf
22:41 and a ring of pergol hyperspace whales.
22:44 And notice how all the different lines
22:46 beam back to one destination.
22:48 This is likely where Thrawn is and where Ezra is.
22:50 Remember, the loath wolves and rebels
22:52 led Ezra into the world between worlds.
22:55 That is a realm between points in time.
22:56 It's the closest Star Wars has ever gotten to time travel.
22:59 Yes, it's crazy,
23:00 but based off of these first two episodes,
23:02 it seems like we might be going there.
23:03 The pergol could operate on a bridge
23:05 that takes us through hyperspace through time.
23:07 And the reason this path leads to Thrawn
23:09 seemingly in one destination,
23:11 it's not because Thrawn just hasn't ever gotten up
23:13 from his chair or wherever he is.
23:14 It's because that destination doesn't lead to a place.
23:17 It leads to a when.
23:18 More on this in tomorrow's breakdown of episode two.
23:21 I wanna thank Noah Chen
23:22 for his research help with this breakdown.
23:24 And again, please check out our "Rebels" rewatch series
23:26 for more context on all of these characters.
23:28 You can follow me on all social platforms @EAVoss.
23:30 Follow New Rockstars, subscribe to New Rockstars
23:32 for more analysis of everything you love.
23:33 Thanks for watching, bye.
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