Star Wars: Rebels - S1E6 - "Breaking Ranks"

Recently, I lookt at the trivia for the Star Wars: Rebels episode "The Occupation" (S4E5).  The earlier episode "Breaking Ranks" (S1E6), specifically the Imperial cadet Oleg, is referenced, and I had a few realizations about it.

In "Breaking Ranks," Ezra poses as cadet Dev Morgan in order to infiltrate the Imperial facility on Lothal and acquire a device that will allow The Ghost crew to locate an Imperial shipment containing a Kyber crystal.  During his time there, he befriends fellow cadets Jai Kell and Zare Leonis.  These three contrast with Oleg in superficial ways that mirror deeper differences in their characters.

Ezra Bridger (even undercover as Dev Morgan), Jai Kell, and Zare Leonis all have first and last names, and their last names highlight their familial connections:  although he's separated from them, Ezra has a strong attachment to his parents, and he recently joined his Rebels family; Jai mentions that his family consists of just him and his mother; and Zare is looking for his sister, who disappeared from the academy.  Oleg's single name seems to indicate that he lacks a family; all he has is the Empire.

Throughout the episode, Ezra, Jai, and Zare frequently take off their helmets or at least open the face panel, but Oleg is never seen without his.  That Oleg remains faceless illustrates that his individuality is being subsumed as he becomes part of the standardized Empire.

Both of these contrasts also match the difference in the characters' ties to the Empire.  Ezra was never truly a cadet; he was only working undercover at the academy.  Jai defects at the end of the episode, after Ezra and Zare explain the true nature of the Empire to him.  While Zare does stay at the academy, he does so only to continue searching for his sister, not because of any true allegiance.  Oleg, on the other hand, was always loyal to the Empire.

---&---

In re-watching the episode, I noticed some small significance in one of the Inquisitor's statements.  Upon reviewing the events at the academy, he looks at images of Jai and Ezra and says, "I do not know this boy [Jai], but this one [Ezra] I know."  His comment has a chiastic structure, which emphasizes these opposites:

I do not know

this boy,

but this one

I know.

[A couple years ago, I wrote a post about the opening shot of this episode.]

Star Wars: Rebels - S4E9 - "Rebel Assault"

Last week, I watched the Star Wars: Rebels episode "Rebel Assault" (S4E9) and noticed some significance in the composition of one shot.  After the squad of Rebels on Lothal sees that the assault led by Hera has failed and that all the Rebels ships have been shot down, there's a wide angle view showing both the falling ships and the Rebels helplessly watching them:

The framing isn't level with the horizon, and this skewed perspective matches the unsettled nature of the characters' feelings:  dismay that the attack has failed and uncertainty about what has happened to Hera.

Star Wars: Rebels - S2E17 - "The Honorable Ones"

This post contains spoilers for later episodes of Rebels.

In re-watching Star Wars: Rebels again, I recently finished season three.  Agent Kallus's character arc in the last few episodes seems to confirm a suspicion I had about "The Honorable Ones" (S2E17).

At the beginning of the episode, the Rebels fall into a trap that Kallus has set for them on a construction module above Geonosis.  During the subsequent fighting, Zeb gets separated from the rest, and when he boards an escape pod to leave, Kallus follows him.  The pod crashes on a moon, and while waiting to be rescued, Zeb and Kallus have to work together to fend off bonzami and get out of a cave.  During this time, Zeb encourages Kallus to start questioning the Empire's motives.  Obviously, Kallus takes this advice, although not immediately; in season three, he begins acting as something of a double agent (taking over the Fulcrum moniker to feed the Rebels information), and in the season finale, he ultimately defects to their cause.

At the end of "The Honorable Ones," there's a brief moment that seems to foreshadow this change in Kallus.  Before Zeb returns to The Ghost, he turns and bows to Kallus.  Kallus had been sheltered behind a rock, but he steps out into the sunlight in order to return Zeb's bow.

His coming into the light prefigures the events of season three, as Kallus slowly moves from the darkness of the Empire to the light side embodied by the Rebellion.

Taken an-other way, the sunrise illuminating Kallus's face represents the beginning of his enlightenment.  He eventually starts to understand what the Empire truly stands for.

Star Wars: Rebels - S3E16 - "Legacy of Mandalore"

A couple weeks ago, I re-watched the Star Wars: Rebels episode "Legacy of Mandalore" (S3E16) and noticed some significance in a few design elements.  The episode starts with Sabine returning to her family home on Krownest where she doesn't receive a warm welcome.  Her ship is shot down, and her mother's first words upon seeing her are, "So, it's true, then.  Put her in a cell; she'll be held for trial."

The environment of Krownest is predominately black and white:

Consequently, Sabine's brightly colored hair and armor really stand out:

This contrast mirrors the characters' relationship.  Sabine doesn't fit in with the palette of Krownest in the same way that she's not fully accepted by her family.

Star Wars: Rebels - S3E11 - "Visions and Voices"

Last week, I re-watched the Star Wars: Rebels episode "Visions and Voices" (S3E11) and noticed a trivial detail that matches a more significant element in the story.

About five minutes into the episode, after Ezra sees visions of Maul, Kanan has Sabine put a tracking device on Ezra's wrist comm:

Later, after Maul appears on Atollon, makes a deal with Ezra in which each will share the information he saw when they joined the holocrons in "The Holocrons of Fate," and then leaves with him, Kanan and Sabine are able to follow Ezra using this signal.

On Dathomir, Maul tells Ezra that "the only way to access the knowledge we seek is to merge our minds again."  He explains that "I have studied the ways of the Nightsisters and found a spell that suits our needs... to initiate the merge, we, we must each drink this potion."  When Maul drinks, his own wrist comm is plainly visible, and it has the same basic design as Ezra's:

Since they opened the holocrons together in "The Holocrons of Fate," Ezra's and Maul's minds have been linked to a certain degree, and in a small way, the similar design of their wrist comms visually indicates this connection between them.

Star Wars: Rebels - S2E21 - "Twilight of the Apprentice - Part I"

Last week, I re-watched the Star Wars: Rebels episode "Twilight of the Apprentice - Part I" (S2E21), which gave me an opportunity to write about a detail I'd noticed a number of years ago but for some reason didn't write about at the time.

When Ezra first encounters Maul, he definitely doesn't trust him.  He draws his lightsaber on him and tells him to "Stay back!"  After Maul says, "You came for the same reason I did, years ago:  you seek knowledge" and explains that he knows how to get into the Sith temple, Ezra agrees to go with him but insists that Maul walk in front of him, apparently so that Ezra can keep an eye on him.

Ezra's feelings toward Maul begin to change after Maul says, "The Sith took everything from me, ripped me from my mother's arms, murdered my brother, used me as a weapon, and then cast me aside, abandoned me."  Ezra replies, "I know how you feel.  The Empire, it took away my home and my mother and my father."  As they approach the door to the temple, Maul claims that the knowledge inside is the key to destroying the Sith, and when he says that he'll share this knowledge with Ezra, Ezra starts walking up the steps in front of Maul:

Ezra keeps Maul in front of him when he first meets him, but after Maul entices him with the knowledge inside the Sith temple, Ezra goes before him.  This change visually indicates that there's a more or less definite point where Ezra starts to trust Maul.

Star Wars: Rebels - S2E19 - "The Forgotten Droid"

In re-watching Star Wars: Rebels again, I recently watched "The Forgotten Droid" (S2E19) and noticed some slight significance in the composition of a particular shot.

Instead of doing what Hera told him to and staying with The Ghost while the rest of the crew steals an Imperial shipment of fuel, Chopper goes to look at a leg that would replace his mismatched one.  Eventually, he steals it, and since The Ghost has already left without him, he escapes aboard an Imperial freighter.  Later, he contacts Hera, who's angry about his disobedience.  After she says, "Really?  So you didn't leave The Ghost to go after that leg?" he appears a bit ashamed (doing what is apparently the droid equivalent of scratching his head in an act of discomfort, unwilling to admit the truth).  In this shot, the leg is looming behind him, almost as if weighing on his shoulder in a picture of his guilt:

Star Wars: Rebels - S2E1 - "The Siege of Lothal"

In re-watching Star Wars: Rebels, I recently started season two, and I noticed a detail in the first part of the first episode, "The Siege of Lothal."  After a successful rebel mission, there's a meeting on one of the command ships.  Significantly, Kanan is sitting apart from the others:

Shortly after this scene, he complains to Hera about joining a larger rebellion:  "When you and I started together, it was rob from the Empire, give to the needy:  a noble cause.  Now we're gettin' drawn into some kind of military thing, and I don't like it."  The distance between him and the others in this meeting visually indicates his misgivings.

Star Wars: Rebels - S1E5 - "Breaking Ranks"

At the beginning of the Rebels episode "Breaking Ranks," there's a brief establishing shot of Lothal City.

At first, I noticed only the visual symmetry that this shot has:  the Imperial facility is centered, and the Star Destroyer on the left is somewhat balanced with the sunset on the right.  Then, I realized that there's a contrast between the two sides of this shot and that this contrast illustrates how the Empire's occupation is changing Lothal.

The right side of the shot shows a bright city with rolling hills beyond it, but the left side shows a darkened city emitting smoke from Imperial factories.  The Star Destroyer overhead indicates the Imperial oppression, and the sunset with which it's balanced may even represent the fading of the old days of Lothal.

There are episodes later in the series that demonstrate more clearly how the Empire is stripping the planet of its resources ("The Occupation" S4E5 and "Crawler Commandeers" S4E8), but this episode shows it in its early stages.

[EDIT:  According to the Star Wars website, each part of "Spark of Rebellion" is its own episode (S1E1 and S1E2), but I thought the two parts constituted just one episode (this is how it's listed on IMDb), so my numbering for the first season is off.]

Star Wars: Rebels - S1E4 - "Rise of the Old Masters"

I recently started re-watching Star Wars: Rebels.  Even before I got to it, I was thinking about "Rise of the Old Masters," and I realized that it's significant that Luminara Unduli is the Jedi Master in this episode.

After the Ghost crew hears Senator Gall Trayvis's broadcast claiming that "one of the Republic's greatest peacekeepers, Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, is alive," Kanan says that "she was a great Jedi master, brave, compassionate, disciplined" and tells Ezra that "she'd made an excellent teacher for you."  From the moment she's introduced, Luminara is presented almost as the epitome of the Republic-era Jedi, but in this time period (the "dark times" of the Empire, as Obi-Wan describes it in A New Hope), she's more suited for this idealization than some other Jedi.  Luminara's name is related to lumen (gen. luminis), the Latin word for light, so in a way, she's the embodiment of the light side of the Force and acts as a symbol of the old Jedi order.

[EDIT:  According to the Star Wars website, each part of "Spark of Rebellion" is its own episode (S1E1 and S1E2), but I thought the two parts constituted just one episode (this is how it's listed on IMDb), so my numbering for the first season is off.]