{"id":49340,"date":"2016-09-28T15:09:02","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T22:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/?p=49340"},"modified":"2019-04-19T09:18:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T16:18:01","slug":"the-3-biggest-questions-from-star-wars-rebels-season-3-premiere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/the-3-biggest-questions-from-star-wars-rebels-season-3-premiere\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Big Questions from Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Premiere"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Last Saturday (September 24), <a href=\"http:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/2016\/09\/21\/5-stand-out-episodes-of-star-wars-rebels-so-far\/\"><em>Star Wars Rebels<\/em><\/a> launched its third season with the extra-long, extra-exciting \u201cSteps into Shadow.\u201d And while the story answered some questions (including one I\u2019d never thought to ask: How <em>did<\/em> the Rebel Alliance get its Y-wing fighters?), it raised some more.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1) Just how far under the dark side\u2019s influence will Ezra fall?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Given that the season kicks off with Ezra \u201cmind-tricking\u201d an AT-ST driver into gunning down his fellow Stormtroopers and then walking himself off a cliff, it seems we\u2019re in for some serious poodoo.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rebels<\/em> has already shown us it\u2019s not afraid to drift into darkness; Kanan\u2019s blinding and Ashoka\u2019s (apparent) demise in last season\u2019s finale are perfect examples. But Ezra\u2019s dabbling in dark side power could cast a much darker shadow over the show.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, the Sith holocron is gone for now. But this episode made the device seem a lot like the One Ring in <em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em>. It\u2019s seductive, deceitful, addictive; it seems even to have a will of its own. I\u2019d bet Republic credits to rankweed it shows up again.<\/p>\n<p>Even if it doesn\u2019t, who knows whether Kanan took it away from Ezra in time to prevent lasting damage? Ezra\u2019s promise to \u201cnever let [his] friends get hurt again\u201d loudly echoes the rash vow that committed Anakin Skywalker to his destiny as Darth Vader. While I don\u2019t think Ezra will wind up a Sith lord (how many kids\u2019 hearts does Dave Filoni really want to break?), I do think the hubris-tinged turn his attachments have taken may end up costing more than the destroyed <em>Phantom<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hyTTWvmJ3hY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>2) Will we learn <em>too<\/em> much about the inner workings of the Force?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Bendu\u2019s scenes were my favorite in this episode &#8211; not least because he\u2019s voiced by Tom Baker, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/prodinfo.asp?number=FU4629#.V-tOAclyxm8\">the Fourth Doctor<\/a> himself! (Maybe the Bendu will offer Ezra a jelly baby next week.)<\/p>\n<p>Still, I wonder whether the introduction of a Sphinx-like beast living in between \u201cthe Ashla and the Bogan, the light and the dark\u201d springs from the same misguided impulse that led George Lucas to inject midichlorians into <em>The Phantom Menace<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>How much do we <em>really<\/em> need to know about the Force?<\/p>\n<p>In his outstanding book <em>How Star Wars Conquered the Universe<\/em>, Chris Taylor praises Lucas for having had the good sense, in 1977, to restrict information about the Force to the \u201ctwenty-eight well-chosen words\u201d Ben Kenobi says: \u201cThe Force is what gives a Jedi his power\u2026\u201d \u201cIndeed,\u201d writes Taylor, \u201clater attempts to examine the Force in more detail seemed out of keeping with the movie\u2019s space fantasy origins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So far, the Bendu (so named as a nod to Lucas\u2019 original terminology for the Jedi Knights) is a gentle giant version of Yoda: ancient, wise, mystical but mirthful. If <em>Rebels<\/em>\u2019 writers can resist the temptation to have him spout off more about the Force and its component parts, the Bendu will be a welcome part of the series\u2019 legacy.<\/p>\n<p>If not, the compelling mystery that is the Force may be diminished.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PeXZPyAEQkA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>3) What has Grand Admiral Thrawn got up his sleeve?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll make a confession that may hurt my geek cred: I\u2019ve never read Timothy Zahn\u2019s <em>Star Wars<\/em> novels.<\/p>\n<p>I remember the hubbub when <em>Heir to the Empire<\/em> saw print 25 years ago (!), and many <em>Star Wars<\/em> fans I respect have told me how good the \u201cThrawn Trilogy\u201d is. I\u2019ve simply never made the time to crack those books open.<\/p>\n<p>But this gap in my <em>Star Wars<\/em> knowledge means I have <em>no<\/em> assumptions, <em>no<\/em> expectations about Thrawn\u2019s role in <em>Rebels<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The show\u2019s characters know his ruthless reputation, but he doesn\u2019t immediately fill me with dread. He\u2019s not a hulking monstrosity in metal like Vader, a doppelganger for the Devil like Maul, or a Nosferatu-like predator like season one\u2019s Inquisitor. He\u2019s big, he\u2019s blue, and cuts a sharp figure in those dress whites of his.<\/p>\n<p>But what he says in his surprisingly soft-spoken voice gives me pause. He says our rebel heroes \u201cwill be the architects of their own destruction.\u201d He\u2019s got a long game in mind.<\/p>\n<p>What could it be?<\/p>\n<p>And &#8211; considering we don\u2019t see any of the <em>Ghost<\/em> crew in the original film trilogy &#8211; could Thrawn actually win it?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hWe6jmJ9q5c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>What are your biggest questions from \u201cSteps into Shadow\u201d? Let\u2019s talk in the comments!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Last Saturday (September 24), Star Wars Rebels launched its third season with the extra-long, extra-exciting \u201cSteps into Shadow.\u201d And while the story answered some questions (including one I\u2019d never thought to ask: How did the Rebel Alliance get its Y-wing fighters?), it raised some more. 1) Just how far under the dark side\u2019s influence [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,390,389,109],"tags":[3145,112,3857,4612,3648,419,165,870,4602],"yst_prominent_words":[8639,36853,5798,8051,10289,5815,7506,16512,10642,25708,6280,8613,5797,14517,5780,5779,36855,36852,36854,5781],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49340"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64131,"href":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49340\/revisions\/64131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49340"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=49340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}