Twilight of the Apprentice

[swiftsnowmane]

 

It's been a week since the Star Wars: Rebels Season 2 finale aired, and I am still not over it!!!

I can't even begin to explain my feelings on this episode. Somewhere between 'insanely thrilled' and 'traumatized for life', lol.

(Major spoilers under the cut!)

For an episode of a 'kid's show' it was extremely dark, both visually and in terms of the implications for the characters going forward. The cruel maiming of a major character, as well as the paralleling of several of the characters' 'identity arcs', was positively GRRM-esque in its delivery.

But despite the dark tone, the storytelling in this ep was superb as always and everything that happened was adequately foreshadowed so that, while it was emotional at at times even painful, it did not feel like it had come out of nowhere. And, most importantly, everyone felt in-character -- both in terms of their invidual actions as well as their reactions to the unfolding of events.

The previous episodes had already set up the tone for this one, by showing us the emotional farewell between Kanan and Hera (which was perfect and basically everything that, for me, was lacking in TFA with Han and Leia's final scene).

As it stood in the penultimate episode, our three beloved 'non-Jedi' were about to embark upon a very dangerous mission, and this was highlighted over and over. So, we knew, going into this ep, that *something* was going to happen. I knew in my gut that none of these three characters were going to emerge from their quest unscathed.

From the moment Kanan, Ezra, and Ahsoka touched down on Malachor, I had chills. The art design for the surface of the planet itself was perfect, and so creepy.



When they descend below the surface into the ruins of the Sith Temple, you just know all is going to hell (quite literally). They make their way through the belly of this literal Sith-underworld, which is also the site of an ancient battle between the Sith and the Jedi. After briefly surverying the remnants of this battle, the group is attacked by an Inquisitor. Ezra becomes separated from Ahsoka and Kanan, and begins his 'fall' into the waiting clutches of "formerly Darth, now just Maul," who instructs him to call him "Old Master". Maul's true purpose (and allegiance) is still unknown to us at this point, but the Dathomirian ex-Sith is obviously up to no good. It's hard to watch Ezra fall under his influence, even for this short while, as even at this point we sense how momentous this encounter is, and that it will have lasting consequences. Still, there is a dark sort of amusement in watching this very literal "devil on his shoulder" interaction, for a time. 



When the characters join up again, Ahsoka and Kanan obviously don't trust Maul one bit, but there is too much going on to fully process the implications of everything. The quest for the Holocron is in full swing, and the group is getting attacked by the Inquisitors left and right, with the looming threat of 'someone worse' being on their way. 



In the chaos that begins to unfold, Maul takes his opportunity. He is, after all, a character that thrives on chaos and in this episode is depicted as almost the very embodiment of 'chaotic evil'. He reveals that he is aligned to neither the Sith nor the Empire, nor (obviously) the Jedi, but is his own agent, working toward a dastardly design all his own -- he wants to obtain the Holocron and harness Malachor's destructive powers. Malachor is revealed to be, essentially, a Death Star lying in wait. It needs only to be activated by the Holocron that is now in Ezra's posession. 



Maul has been waiting for a new 'apprentice' all this time, because the temple is built to the Sith design, and thereby the Sith 'rule of two', and he has been unable to enter it alone. After he and Ezra have obtained the Holocron, he reveals to Kanan his intention to take Ezra as his new apprentice, and immediately attacks Kanan, blinding him with the blade of his lightsaber.

This is by the far the most shocking moment I have seen in an kid's cartoon tv show in a long time (I'm not counting anime series). To witness a beloved main character's maiming at the hands of a villain is traumatizing to say the least. Disney of course keeps things 'tasteful' (aka tame), and never directly shows us his injury. But this almost made it more painful in a way, because it allowed us viewers a bit of denial at first.

The scene cuts away for a time so we are left uncertain about the extent of Kanan's injury for the time being -- all we know is that he is desperate to cover his face, and he reaches for and finds a discarded Temple Guard mask (left over, perhaps, from the aforementioned long-ago battle, or perhaps from a previous Jedi's failed attempt to retrieve the Holocron). We are so concerned at this point with Kanan's *survival* in his fight with Maul, that we put his injury to the backs of our mind, and just hold our breaths to see if he can, even in that state, still defend himself. 



He can, and indeed, does. He duels with Maul, and ends up (temporarily) defeating his betrayer. (Sidenote: this is now the THIRD of my favourite Star Wars characters who has been directly killed/maimed by Maul, that BASTARD. *sobs*) Kanan then goes to the aid of Ezra who is facing down against the newly-arrived Darth Vader. And this is the first of two moments during this episode in which I let out an audible, wrenching sob.

The sight of Kanan Jarrus, the carefree Rebel warrior and erstwhile-Jedi, leaning against his droid for support and guidance, to find his way to Ezra's side.....well.....let's just say it KILLED ME. 



It killed me to see him, reduced thus (for now). But what killed me even more was the look on Ezra's face when he sees Kanan like that. He doesn't yet fully understand what has happened, but realization is beginning to dawn, and Ezra's growing comprehension and increasing horror what has happened to his master mirrors our own.


Finally, we come to the duel between Darth Vader and Ahsoka Tano that has been so long-awaited, ever since Ahsoka re-entered the storyline. Vader has arrived just in time to attempt to steal the Holocron at his master's behest and to activate the planet's 'Death Star'-esque capabilities.



The first punch-to-the-gut moment in their encounter comes at Vader's declaration that "Anakin Skywalker was weak; I destroyed him." We can see and feel Ahsoka's heartbreak at these words. But then comes her defiant response: "Then I will avenge his death!", and their furious fight begins in earnest. 



There are several cutaways throughout, and a moment where it seems like Ahsoka might have been vanquished, but then during the scene where Vader is using the Force on Ezra, attempting to gain control of the Holocron, and Kanan is holding onto his apprentice with all his might, trying to keep him from Vader's grasp, Ahsoka leaps from the shadows to their aid. She engages Vader once more,  distracting him long enough for Kanan and Ezra to make their escape, and then suddenly....Oh.

She hears her name.

Spoken in Anakin's voice. 

At the sound of her name coming from behind the mask, my heart was already halfway up my throat. Though his voice was half-mingled with the familiar sounds of Darth Vader's mechanized breathing, it was recognizable and distinctly human all the same. And then Ahsoka turns toward him and we see that, when she had attacked him with her twin lightsabers, she had cut away a portion of his mask. This is the second moment in this episode where I completely lost it. The sudden, unexpected glimpse of Anakin Skywalker, combined with the sound of him speaking his former apprentice's name in such a pleading, vulnerable tone, caused me to let out a strangled sob.

This moment goes down as one of the most iconic on-screen Star Wars moments I have seen in a long, long time. I don't think I have been so deeply moved by a scene in this 'verse since I was child watching the finale between Luke, Vader, and the Emperor in Return of the Jedi.

It is the echoes of Anakin and Ahsoka's former friendship and comraderie (as depicted in great depth in The Clone Wars) that render this final, violent encounter between such two formerly-close characters almost unbearably painful to witness. And in the end, Filoni spares us seeing how it ultimately plays out, when the door closes on them and Ezra and Kanan escape the explosion/crumbling of the temple. We are left with tantalizing hints that Ahsoka might not have fallen to Vader's blade, after all, and a final glimpse of her disappearing into the shadows suggests that she may have escaped or might still be trapped within the temple ruins.

Even so, the sorrow remains, for her comrades in the Rebellion now all believe her to be dead.

On a final, important note, the theme of 'the master and the apprentice' is so strong in his episode that I have to bring it up here, especially in relation to the characters of Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker and Kanan Jarrus, and their respective 'indentity arcs':

Since his introduction into the canonical Star Wars universe, the character of Kanan Jarrus has seemed to be directly paralleled/contrasted with that of Anakin Skywalker, and this episode only served to drive that contrast home even further. When Kanan is blinded, he can no longer rely on his physical sight, and very symbolicaly puts on the white mask of the Jedi Temple Guards, while relying on the Force to guide his movements and senses during his fight with Maul. It has been noted by others that, while previously Kanan struggled to reconcile his Jedi past with his Rebellion warrior present, in that moment when he dons the mask, his two indentities merge into one. Kanan is no longer conflicted, no longer so full of self doubt and guilt over his past failures as a young Jedi padawan before the fall of the Republic. He seems almost calm, accepting -- at least, in that pivotal moment, when he is calling on the Force with all his might in order to emerge victorious in the fight so he can make his way back to Ezra. In that scene, the mask for Kanan becomes a unifying, centering object, one that symbolically merges both of his indenities. 

Whereas, conversely, Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker's indentity is shown throughout this episode as very conflicted, even to the point that by the end he is depicted visually as having two faces, or his face/mask being broken open/split in two. The flesh within the machine is revealed, and where Kanan's eye(s)? is/are completely blinded, Anakin's eye is both literally and figuratively 'opened'. But where Kanan's blinding (and mask-wearing) causes him to 'see more clearly' through the Force, it seems almost as though Anakin's eye being opened in his way and his mask being 'broken open' only causes him to be further conflicted, and his dual indentities even more sundered.

Seeing as both Vader/Anakin and Kanan's relationships with their apprentice/former apprentice are highlighted throughout the aptly named Twilight of the Apprentice, the parallels/anti-parallels between these two characters are hard to ignore. Where this is all leading, we have yet to discover. But it seems to me that Kanan Jarrus, who was at the start of this story an 'almost-Jedi, former-padawan gone rogue', and who did not consider himself to be a 'true Jedi', has now returned to his roots. In one of the previous episodes, he was knighted by the vision(?) of the Temple Guard inside the Jedi temple, and was dubbed a true Jedi Knight.

In this episode, he actually puts the mask of a Temple Guard on himself, and imo, this is Kanan calmly and staunchly embracing his heritage and destiny in one moment. Even thought he is in that moment suffering immense pain, he actively puts on the trappings of a true Jedi Knight. I hope that, despite his trauamatic injury and ensuing disability, that this is a positive sign for his future story arc. Considering that I had braced myself for the prospect of losing him altogether in this episode, I have to have hope that this now means his character will be around for a while longer, at least. Whether he will be able to continue to exert a positive influence on Ezra remains to be seen, but I have to hope....

While the implications of what happened in the season finale range from greatly upsetting (Oh, Kanan!!! My poor sweet space-husband!!! Blinded forever!!! Never to gaze deeply into your space-wife Hera's eyes again!!! I still can't handle this!!!) to downright disturbing for certain characters (Ezra Bridger, especially), it has also set things up in such a way that I am on the very edge of my seat waiting to know what happens next.

After being so thoroughly disappointed by The Force Awakens, I am just so grateful that something at least has renewed my love for the Star Wars universe and for (some of) the characters in it. From the start of this show, I already loved Kanan Jarrus/Caleb Dume, but now he is up there alongside my favourite Star Wars characters. In fact, the entire crew of the Ghost is very dear to me. Each episode makes me care about them all more and more deeply, even as (and especially when) things seem to be getting very dark for them indeed.

Perhaps I'm just more of a fan of the Star Wars animated series than I am of the films. By how much I enjoyed The Clone Wars, and by how much Star Wars: Rebels delights, frightens, and thrills me in each and every episode, I have to say that seems to indeed be the case. This show, which is at turns hilariously adorable and darkly epic, has renewed my interest enough that while I'm still not thrilled about TFA-era canon, I am at least somewhat more curious about the upcoming Rogue One film.

There is of course always a chance that this show will disappoint me in the end, but seeing as the upcoming hiatus until the airing of Season 3 is going to be a very long one, for now I choose to immerse myself in fic and other fan-content for it, and to focus on how much I have enjoyed it thus far. :) 




Yeah. I'll just be over here, curled in a ball, pretending I'm not crying over a kid's cartoon.....




**Edited to add: I have been so haunted by this episode all year long, and have since written a great deal of meta on Vader and Ahsoka's encounter. Here is one post in particular that explains my takeaway from this episode regarding those two characters in greater detail:

Vader's mask in Twilight of the Apprentice