Star Wars Rebels 3x01 "Steps into Shadow, Pt. 1" - reaction & review
Added 2022-09-19 11:29:39 +0000 UTCHey everyone! Here it is - my reaction to season 3, episode 1 of REBELS!!!! Whoa, we are hitting the ground running here - Ezra has wasted NO time at all getting in touch with his Sith side! Watching him use the force to take people out so brutally was...well...brutal! And Kanan understandably has some stuff to work through as well, after all that's happened. If only there was a Doctor who could help....!!!!! Hehehehe, I'll never stop being happy over it! Can't wait to see what's next! Great ep! Enjoy!!! ~ MH
Comments
Right, the name's been floating around for decades, but this serves as a great jumping on point for those who have never officially met him! I LOVE what they do with the music here!!! They really build up his presence perfectly like you said!!
Melissa Moore
2023-10-27 14:29:23 +0000 UTCSo I’d heard of Thrawn before this because of being mentioned in Mando S2 and hearing things about the old books, but this was my first proper introduction to him and man it didn’t disappoint! The way they immediately let you know how cold and calculating he is with the pipe organ theme in the background is *chefs kiss*. It gives him this big intimidating presence after just one scene.
Cody
2023-10-26 23:19:25 +0000 UTCOh interesting! So he slept through it all lol, not a bad plan :P\
Melissa Moore
2022-09-30 13:22:58 +0000 UTCI don't think they did, due to something that he mentions later. He is ancient though, so perhaps some of the first Jedi or even the order before they became that - the Je'daii - when they were first exploring the galaxy, knew of him or found him; but I think he's been hibernating for centuries at least, as Kanan and Ezra's turmoils in the force, and the presence of the rebel base, awoke him from that 'deep slumber'.
Saltire
2022-09-28 18:24:57 +0000 UTCYeah I'm not sure!! Interesting to think about though...
Melissa Moore
2022-09-28 13:55:13 +0000 UTCYes, I've been refreshed on who Thrawn is, thanks for making sure! I have fond memories of being told about all the characters from the books, I was a bit too young to read them myself. I'd love to check them out now! Oh yeah I saw those concerned looks, totally warranted. Hahaha oh yeah I guess I could see how those two are a bit paired off even now! Hope you enjoyed my reactions!
Melissa Moore
2022-09-28 13:19:14 +0000 UTCOn Bendu: I have often wondered whether the Jedi knew of him.
Nick
2022-09-27 20:45:50 +0000 UTCI’m sure others have said it already but Thrawn is one of the biggest bad in Star Wars Legends/the old EU. If you’re a reader I highly recommend the Thrawn Trilogy and the Hand of Thrawn Duology Best Star Wars out there, far as I’m concerned it’s the real sequel trilogy and it’s follow up. Plus it introduces my favorite Star Wars character as well Mara Jade. I think you’d enjoy those books if you’re a reader too! And yup. This ep had me very nervous for Ezra. And the concerned looks from Sabine as well as the “is that Ezra?” “Sometimes…” did give my shipper in me some potential flags. I do like Ezra and Sabine act more like partners here. Very similar to Hera and Kanan. Anyways. On to ep 2!
Dusty V
2022-09-24 18:23:22 +0000 UTCYeah good call about the boost in power Saltire! Awww Tom Baker is the best! No kidding, I didn't know that about Boss Nass' VA!!! No worries, I adore Tom Baker too so I get it haha. Hmm, interesting about George Lucas' take. True that in this case, it's more of a one-off instance. Yes I think we'll get more about Thrawn soon!!! Nick - yes that must have been exciting!!! I can't wait to see what you mean! I can totally see the gothy vibes for Sabine haha!!
Melissa Moore
2022-09-23 13:10:57 +0000 UTCI would imagine that for any Rebels fan (one that had seen Rebels by this point), when Ahsoka asked where Thrawn was in the Mandalorian was a really exciting moment. Exciting for reasons that will only be revealed by the end of Rebels Season 4 😉 Sabine looks her best with hair and armour colour in the last ever episode of Rebels at the end of the episode: very cool (and slightly gothy imo).
Nick
2022-09-23 06:41:59 +0000 UTCYeah Ezra is starting to realise the potential he has in the force now. As a kid he had a few jumps in power, but now it looks like all that is coming together and he is now someone to be feared in combat. One thing the darkside will do is give you a quick power boost tapping into that anger thats for sure! I'm kind of glad you and a few other reactors I've seen who have watched this, know who Tom Baker is, as though Doctor Who has proved popular since its reboot in 2005, his stint as the Time Lord was way back during the creaky sets and low budget times of the late 70's - though he is my favourite of the Doctors personally, along with when he had K-9. He is one of our more eccentric and beloved actors, along with the late great Oliver Reed and Brian Blessed, who you would recognise here in Star Wars as the voice of Boss Nass in Phantom Menace or if you have ever watched the hilariously camp Flash Gordon! Anyway I'm rambling on, Tom Baker is awesome and great having him here in my fave Star Wars show! :D As for Bendu himself being 'the one in the middle', I would like to hear what George Lucas thought about that, since he said that the light side is balance, and the dark side corrupts the force, so there can be no middle. However this is Filoni's creation and he keeps in regular contact with Lucas, so I imagine he spoke to George on this before going ahead and creating him for the show. With him being a one-off force of nature, then its more acceptable I reckon. Ah glad to see Thrawn's name stirs up some memories for you back in the day then. I never read those books but know he's universally beloved throughout the fanbase and looks like we'll be getting him in live action soon if Ahsoka is looking for him; which is potentially great for a lot of plots for where they want to take the timeline for Mando/Ahsoka etc.
Saltire
2022-09-21 14:59:01 +0000 UTCThanks for the info on the timing! I didn't even notice the darker hue but I can see how that would work better! Seriously, it's scary the amount of overpowered-ness that force wielders have in this world!!! Yeah what Ezra did was SUPER DARK and I wonder if it's ever gonna come up again, because, dang. Line crossed!! Poor Hondo, glad he got freed in this one! Depression beard, omg! I agree about the armor. I love Bendu!!!! Yeah seems like nothing gets to him, being right in the middle. So awesome that it was Tom Baker! We've had the fourth and tenth so far, let's see if any other Doctors pop up over time haha. Thanks for all the info on Bendu! Yes, I remember Thrawn's name from Mandalorian, and I do remember all those books!!! At the time, I was more reading the little Jedi Junior adventures or whatever they called them hahaha but I remember seeing the books, older people around me reading/talking about them, etc. So I think that's why it sounded familiar too. Well if he's their Sherlock Holmes, we're in trouble! Also interesting about the xenophobia, that's so true now that you mention it. Ohhhh that's who Pryce is! Oh wow, that's really saying something about the accent!!!! So cool when someone has perfected something like that. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts!
Melissa Moore
2022-09-21 13:09:33 +0000 UTCYes I agree about the time jump! Hahaha Chopper's got so much to put up with huh. YESSSSS Hondo!!! Hahaha things just got even more interesting right?! Yeah we know that the more trouble is caused by the rebels, the more they'll call in the bigger and bigger guns. Thrawn's no joke! Oh I didn't notice Sabine's expression but good call. Yeah I'm not eager to watch that scenario play out again! Yeah, it's the little things, so true!! And it's not hard for those things to pile up and get away from you if you're not careful. Hahaha yeah I mean talk about pressure though :P
Melissa Moore
2022-09-20 13:37:01 +0000 UTCOmg I know right!? Like I knew there'd be repercussions, but dang!
Melissa Moore
2022-09-20 13:34:32 +0000 UTCYes I think I'd heard it from both, thanks for clearing that up for me! That's cool they'd bring around some of George's original concepts. I'm so happy you enjoyed my reaction!!! I know right?! This series goes a bit more quickly than Clone Wars haha!
Melissa Moore
2022-09-20 13:34:09 +0000 UTCOhhhh that's where I knew it from! I feel like when I heard it in The Mandalorian, I remembered it from the books. Now I'm probably remembering it from the Mandalorian! Interesting about the more recent books!
Melissa Moore
2022-09-20 13:33:11 +0000 UTCYeah that's the thing! And I agree, it works well. Could not be happier about the VA choices haaha. YESSS HONDO!!!
Melissa Moore
2022-09-20 13:32:28 +0000 UTCSo demure. But how could things not be after the season finale. Fingers crossed things get better 🤞
Manny
2022-09-20 09:20:40 +0000 UTCI think it’s heavily implied that there’s been a time jump between the end of S2 and the start of S3 - especially with the new looks. Ezra has probably been using this Sith holocron for a while - more on that in a bit. Apparently Chopper doesn’t like to fly without a ship but I think he was more annoyed that Zeb was the one who caught him. Oh, look. It’s Hondo. As if things weren’t stressful enough, now THIS joker is back? 😅 It seems the Empire is starting to catch on and is concerned enough to send in someone competent to deal with the problem. We knew this was coming, but it will be interesting to see what sort of obstacles they pose. It is mentioned that civilian casualties outweighed rebel defeats, and Thrawn responded to Kallus of all people, by saying it was a “acceptable result.” This guy is already gonna be a joy, I can tell. 😬 Ezra does seem particularly “short” with people, and you’re right - this movie is one we’ve played before. I noticed a couple scenes where even Sabine looked like she was getting fed up with him. Which brings us to the crux of the episode - Kanan, or rather, what he’s been doing… or, NOT doing. As Bendu tells him, an object can’t be good or evil, it depends on how you implement it. Apparently, Kanan’s been so focused on his own shortcomings that he’s completely ignored Ezra during this time - and, well, we see what the results are. By forgetting to work on the little things, he may have inadvertently steered Ezra down the very path he was hoping to avoid. The devil is always in the details. Of course, giving him command of a mission and the added stress of Hondo might not be helping… 😅
Tyler Stobbe
2022-09-20 06:18:51 +0000 UTCI picked up 3 hardcovers a couple of weeks ago Thrawn Thrawn Alliances & Thrawn Treason These are the only ones I know about. I got them because Timothy Zahn is my favorite Star Wars novel author Melissa, if you like Star Wars and you haven't read ... Heir to The Empire Dark Force Rising & The Last Command I highly recommend them. No First Order nonsense (man I hate those movies) This trilogy is amazing, and The Star Wars universe gets 2 new characters that are so good they pop up in other Star Wars stories including Grand Admiral Thrawn.
JAMES D'ALESSANDRO
2022-09-19 20:01:41 +0000 UTCIs there two sets of the newer books then?
Saltire
2022-09-19 18:42:38 +0000 UTCI just started 1 of them recently
JAMES D'ALESSANDRO
2022-09-19 16:13:07 +0000 UTCSix months have passed since Malachor, we are now 2 years out from A New Hope. Ezra has had a growth spurt. We don't know how he got his green lightsabre, but green sabres are my favourite colour when they have this specific hue, a darker tint to them like Ezra's here and Luke's. Yoda's green sabre is lighter in colour (as was Ahsoka's first ones) and doesn't stand out for me much, so I vastly prefer this sabre colour. And it looks more threatening in interiors. Ezra getting his own brief corridor scene, showing how he has vastly grown in power in that 6 months. You almost feel sorry for the stormtroopers, who are mere mortals like the rest of us, being pitted against a strong force-user who knows what they are doing. Like Maul's corridor scene in TCW, or Vader's in Rogue One. Terrifying to the poor sods trapped with them! We see a lot of dark stuff in Star Wars, but I might just think what Ezra does to that Walker pilot, is the darkest of the lot. Zeb calls it a Jedi Mind Trick, its way more intrusive than that. Its a Sith power called Mind Domination, and to completely take over a mind, do your bidding, then have that person commit suicide, is dark. Last time we saw Hondo was in the Lasat episode where Zeb finds Lira San, and Hondo got captured. He's been in jail ever since! Sabine's hair change in this season is my least favourite of her looks, however her new colour scheme on her armour is very nice, and she has a convor owl on her left pauldron as a memorial to Ahsoka. Zeb has Big Bongo the Joopa, who almost ate him on his new look, and Hera has her Captain's rank insignia now on her shoulder. Kanan has now what the fandom calls his 'depression beard' which really suits him. The eye markings on his mask are Mandalorian (same as on Rex's helmet), so one can assume Sabine painted it. Love Bendu, the 60 foot force-wielding space moose! Note how he opens the Sith holocron with not a care in the world. He's a force of nature, a vergence in the force like Anakin is, though he cannot be influenced by the light or the dark side, he's 'the one in the middle'. Originally his design was for him to be MUCH bigger, in fact the spider episode was going to first feature him, where the Rebels inadvertently built their base on his back! He was also going to talk to Ahsoka before she and the other Jedi headed to Malachor (and there is a transcript of that conversation), but they abandoned that idea. His name comes from an original term for the Jedi. Before they became the Jedi Knights, originally they were to be called the Jedi-Bendu. We've had one 'Doctor' in David Tennent appear in Star Wars, now we have another, with the great Tom Baker playing Bendu, the best of the old school 'Doctors'. Beautifully powerful voice and diction, just like with Kallus's VA David Oyelowo. Onto perhaps the most exciting thing that people loved when this aired, the reintroduction into Star Wars canon of the legendary Thrawn. I don't know how much if anything you know of him Mel as I remember you saying you were right into everything Star Wars as a kid; but when Return Of The Jedi finished, people thought Star Wars was done, until the writer Timothy Zahn came up with Thrawn, whose Heir To The Empire books became classics. This is as severe a threat to our Rebels, as Vader would be. The Empire is known to be very xenopohobic and note every officer they have is human, except for Thrawn, who is a Grand Admiral at that, the highest rank in the Imperial Navy. For an alien (he is a Chiss) to be promoted to the equivalent of a Field Marshal, suggests this is a person who gets things done. He is essentially the Sherlock Holmes of the Empire, a titan of tactics, insight and strategy. Love that fade out with him looking over the console to the crew going over the world and Thrawn's eyes hover over them, the rebels really need to be on guard now. As I see others have now said, Ahsoka is looking for him in The Mandalorian, but we'll get to all that! Governor Pryce is with him. She is Lothal's Governor. Back in season 1 it was always mentioned that Pryce wasn't around on Lothal and was elsewhere. There were comics made around that time and she was teamed up with Thrawn there, so she was busy with him, and Minister Tua who we saw, was the bureaucrat that tried and failed to deal with our Spectres. As a Brit I was astonished to learn the other week, that Pryce's VA is American. Usually I can tell when an American is doing a British accent, even with the better attempts, like Stephen Stanton who is doing a passable Peter Cushing for Tarkin. But with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, I couldn't tell the difference and thought it was a genuine English accent.
Saltire
2022-09-19 15:19:24 +0000 UTCThere is also the two canon Thrawn trilogies. Which are fantastic.
Melody Dia
2022-09-19 15:14:51 +0000 UTCIn Mandalorian Season 2 when we see Ahsoka again on the barren tree planet, she has that fight with the lady with the beskar spear. She asks her upon her defeat where her master is. "Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?" That is most likely where you heard it before. Thrawn was originally introduced back in the old Expanded Universe canon in the 90s novels by Timothy Zahn but was reintroduced to audiences in this current canon in this episode. As for Bendu, he speaks of the light side and the dark side as the Ashla and the Bogan whereas he exists in the middle. In George Lucas' original rough draft for A New Hope he referred to the force as Ashla for Jedi and Bogan for Sith so this was an interesting way to bring that idea back around. Love your reactions as always. Looking forward to you experiencing more of this series. Hard to believe you're already past the half way point.
dainbramage7
2022-09-19 14:12:32 +0000 UTCIf you read certain Star Wars Novels back in the early 90's(that should have been the sequels and not the garbage we got) You would know who The Grand Admiral is, or if you watched The Mandolorian(and I think you have) he is the one Ahsoka is looking for.
JAMES D'ALESSANDRO
2022-09-19 13:52:09 +0000 UTCAnother great reaction. Its interesting that Bendu can open the holocron despite not being a dark sider. The addition of Thrawn and Bendu to Rebels works brilliantly for the series, and in both cases they really hit the mark with the voice actors for these new characters. I love Tom Baker as Bendu: what a voice! And of course it's great to have Hondo back - he's as entertaining as ever.
Nick
2022-09-19 13:20:50 +0000 UTC
