Huh. Y'know, looking back, the Bad Batch arc does have a bit of a disguised pilot vibe to it. "Meet all these cool and interesting characters. They won't be important to the rest of this show but wow, aren't these guys interesting?"
Well played, Filoni.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
With this news I think that may have been a major reason it got included in the final season over other incomplete arcs. I suspect the idea wasn't around when the arc was first conceived but someone at Lucasfilm probably wanted to do a Bad Batch TV show and they figured the final Clone Wars season would help promote them.
The main issue with Rebels was the overall design, from what I recall.
And that wasn't that surprising, considering Clone Wars was pretty expensive to make (to the point that George Lucas used to chip in personally to get it made).
I think two things that'll always stand out to me when it comes to what I disliked about Rebels were Hondo's design and the lightsabers.
Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Jul 16th 2020 at 7:11:51 PM
We learn from history that we do not learn from historyThe art-style of Rebels never bothered me at all. It's true it was much less detailed than TCW, but in exchange it had much more fluid animation. Really the only place it suffered were the space battles. Trying to do CG simulations of the way they made space battles in the original trilogy was not a good decision.
No, what I mean by dip in quality, is the loss of thematic focus that set in with Season 3. While Season 1 and 2 also could also be a bit meandering, they always had a clear focus on family relations, centered on Kanan and Ezra's growing father and son like bond. Everything from the world-building, to the plot was ancillary to exploring those relations. From season 3 onward it was flipped, the relations became submitted to the plot and the world building. That's why the Holocron that was clearly supposed to test Ezra and Kanan's bond was destroyed within two episodes of them getting it, and Maul who was also set-up as an obstacle for them to overcome relegated into a side-story with no relevance to either the plot or characters, where he could be killed by Obi-Wan. That's why Ezra's flirtation with the Dark side that they've been setting up since Season 1, and strongly hinted at in season 2, was abandoned alltogether after the pilot of Season 3.
While Season 3 arguably had better individual episodes, and definitely better overarching-subplots than Season 2 did, it came at a cost to the underlying themes of the overall series, and the abandonment of storylines that served those themes. It's not that it was a bad season in itself, it's that it doesn't serve it's purpose properly as part of a larger whole.
Edited by Werebazs on Jul 17th 2020 at 1:13:39 PM
God that arc is awesome. Definitely up there for TCW and likely for both shows. Mortis, Umbara, Fives, the Citadel, and the Maul arc are probably the best of TCW. Rebels is a bit harder because it doesn't do arcs the same way but Twilight of the Apprentice, Twin Suns, and The World Between Worlds are probably its best episodes in my opinion.
As someone who likes Ezra as a character, I will defend S3 to some extent. The entire idea with Ezra’s stick with the Dark Side was always empowered by Maul.
Maul became a literal toxic influence on Ezra, and it took Twin Suns metaphysical beat-down on Ezra’s stubbornness.
The thing about Ezra is that he is stubborn and tenacious. He’s a survivor. Like Maul. But unlike Maul, he found positive influences in his life prior to any contact with the dark side. Because of that, every time Ezra began slipping, he was pulled back. The entire reason Ezra got as bad as he did in the pilot, was because Kanan had cut himself off. Once Kanan got his head on straight, the only really problem was Maul, who Ezra felt responsible for due to trusting Mail in the s2 finale.
And I do think it’s poetic that it’s Obi-Wan who helped Ezra get back on his proper path. When Ezra first used the Force properly in Rebels was to activate the Holocrons message in the first episode. And it’s Obi-Wan who helps him once again to return to his proper path
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While I do agree with you to an extent, Ezra's flirt with the Dark side was not Maul's influence. He tapped into the Dark side to rile up the Frynock queen, and throughout s2 he had multiple rebellious moments towards Kanan, spurned by Kanan's own continued lack of confidence in his ability to teach Ezra. My problem is not that Ezra didn't stray from the Jedi path, my problem is that they resolved something in two episodes, that they've been setting up for two seasons. Same with Kallus, who never had a proper redemption arc. One episode he's gleefully watching what he believes to be the Ghost crew's demise, next he briefly teams-up with Zeb, and then he disappears for the rest of the season, and returns already a double agent working for the rebellion. We never really learn what his thought process for switching sides was. Not to mention once he joins, he's promtly forgotten for half-a-season.
There's a Lego Star Wars Holiday Special coming to Disney+ on November 17. Not much else is known at the moment.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Disney/status/1293943435196616704
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Well, that's a plot twist.
"Hey, Star Wars is getting a new holiday special!"
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
"It's LEGO Star Wars."
"Oh. Okay then."
If we're seeing Wookie families again, there better be subtitles.

I thought it would be a cool idea to have a story about Rex trying to save and un-chip as many clones as he could after Order 66.
The story could be a tragedy. Rex sets up this secret hospital/operation for kidnapping and curing clones, and slowly frees a sizable group from Imperial control, making a new family around himself... and then the Empire finds out, and everyone gets wiped out - the only survivors of the group (as far as he knows) being Rex, Gregor and Wolffe. Hence Rex having given up and exiled himself come the time we meet him in Rebels.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Jul 14th 2020 at 10:55:59 AM