Star Wars Rebels: Visions and Voices
December 13, 2016 7:23 AM - Season 3, Episode 11 - Subscribe
Maul returns for Rebels' mid-season finale to convince Ezra to return to him to a planet well known to aficionados of The Clone Wars, Dathomir. On the planet, once home to the Nightsisters, Maul promises a ritual which will provide the answers sought when the holocrons of the Sith and the Jedi were combined earlier this season.
For more information about "Visions and Voices," check out its episode guide!
Trivia!
For more information about "Visions and Voices," check out its episode guide!
Trivia!
- Working titles for the episode included "Dark Blade of Dathomir" and "The Boy Who Cried Maul."
- Dave Filoni described Ezra's haunting visions at the start of the episode as having a "Freddy Krueger-quality" to them.
- The Darksaber first appeared in The Clone Wars as a relatively late addition to the Season Two Mandalorian storyline. Its inclusion, however, spawned a great deal of story development concerning Mandalore's ancient past.
- Strewn about Maul's sanctuary are battle droid heads and discarded helmets from his former Mandalorian warriors.
- Maul also has a stolen cubist portrait of Duchess Satine Kryze, whom Maul killed during the Clone Wars.
- Composer Kevin Kiner used a small, piano-only refrain from Duchess Satine's theme from The Clone Wars when Ezra looks at her painting.
- Meredith Salenger and Anna Graves, two reoccurring actors from The Clone Wars were hired to voice the Nightsister-possessed incarnations of Kanan and Sabine.
- The ancient Sith writing maddeningly scrawled on the wall of the sanctuary translates to KENOBI.
This was a wonderful episode of Clone Wars. Glad they finally made it back to Dathomir.
ZING.
They resurrected the Maul storyline from "Holocrons of Fate," and pretty much confirmed that the season's Maul storyline will end on Tatooine...or they're doing a brilliant job trolling us with this information. After the aforementioned episode, a lot of people started talking about "Old Wounds" a one off, non-canonical story in the comic book Visionaries of Star Wars (or something like that) which had Maul hunting Kenobi down on Tatooine and confronting the man who made him half the Maul he used to be. In that story, Maul is killed, not by Obi-Wan, but by Owen Lars.
Given that Maul knows to go to Tatooine, he knows Kenobi is alive, it seems very likely that it's at least Maul's intent to finish some unfinished business.
It was interesting going back to Dathomir. I watched the last of the Dathomir episodes in The Clone Wars only a month or so ago, so it was kinda neat to return to it with it fresh in my minds. "Ah, yah, that's damaged because Grievous' forces jacked...it....up!" It was definitely nostalgic to see Satine's portrait.
Maul's attachment to Ezra is peculiar. He claims to hate the Sith, but he wants to still emulate them by finding an apprentice. My current guess is Ezra kills Maul, in lieu of Owen Lars, mark it down!
Probably the most disappointing thing was the Bendu or how little he had to say and do. Don't bring the Bendu into the episode unless he's going to say something of significance...or at least make it an episode long chat with the Bendu about insignificant things, such as holonet movies or something!
posted by Atreides at 8:53 AM on December 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
ZING.
They resurrected the Maul storyline from "Holocrons of Fate," and pretty much confirmed that the season's Maul storyline will end on Tatooine...or they're doing a brilliant job trolling us with this information. After the aforementioned episode, a lot of people started talking about "Old Wounds" a one off, non-canonical story in the comic book Visionaries of Star Wars (or something like that) which had Maul hunting Kenobi down on Tatooine and confronting the man who made him half the Maul he used to be. In that story, Maul is killed, not by Obi-Wan, but by Owen Lars.
Given that Maul knows to go to Tatooine, he knows Kenobi is alive, it seems very likely that it's at least Maul's intent to finish some unfinished business.
It was interesting going back to Dathomir. I watched the last of the Dathomir episodes in The Clone Wars only a month or so ago, so it was kinda neat to return to it with it fresh in my minds. "Ah, yah, that's damaged because Grievous' forces jacked...it....up!" It was definitely nostalgic to see Satine's portrait.
Maul's attachment to Ezra is peculiar. He claims to hate the Sith, but he wants to still emulate them by finding an apprentice. My current guess is Ezra kills Maul, in lieu of Owen Lars, mark it down!
Probably the most disappointing thing was the Bendu or how little he had to say and do. Don't bring the Bendu into the episode unless he's going to say something of significance...or at least make it an episode long chat with the Bendu about insignificant things, such as holonet movies or something!
posted by Atreides at 8:53 AM on December 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
Two excellent episodes in a row! The team has really got up a good head of steam with the story and characters now.
I think I've said it before in relation to TCW episodes, but Maul might just be my favorite character in either series. Not because I admire him or anything – he's pure malevolence – but he is just done so well done: his design, animation, and expressions, his voice acting, and his story and character development. I think it's completely fascinating how he has fixated on making Ezra his apprentice; the way he said "brothers" as he left Ezra was almost touching.
I do have a question about the dark saber Sabine picked up: is it a dark saber, or the Dark Saber? I seem to recall some media in which a bunch of Mandalorians were all wielding them, but I also remember Pre Vizla in TCW mentioned it's the heirloom of his house, wielded only by one most worthy of it. In any event, I'm psyched to see it in Sabine's hands now.
As for the prospect of seeing Kenobi: who will voice him?
Lastly, I'll share a couple tidbits from people who saw and/or were involved with the production of Rogue One:
"Fans of the Disney XD animated series Star Wars: Rebels should keep their eyes wide open for a number of special surprises. (That’s all I’m going to say about that.)"
"STAR WARS REBELS co-creators @dave_filoni and @Kinberg. Watch (and listen!) closely for Rebels easter eggs in #RogueOne!"
There is a glimpse of the Ghost amid the Rebel fleet in one of the trailers. So keep your eyes & ears peeled when you go see the film!
posted by The Nutmeg of Consolation at 10:42 AM on December 13, 2016
I think I've said it before in relation to TCW episodes, but Maul might just be my favorite character in either series. Not because I admire him or anything – he's pure malevolence – but he is just done so well done: his design, animation, and expressions, his voice acting, and his story and character development. I think it's completely fascinating how he has fixated on making Ezra his apprentice; the way he said "brothers" as he left Ezra was almost touching.
I do have a question about the dark saber Sabine picked up: is it a dark saber, or the Dark Saber? I seem to recall some media in which a bunch of Mandalorians were all wielding them, but I also remember Pre Vizla in TCW mentioned it's the heirloom of his house, wielded only by one most worthy of it. In any event, I'm psyched to see it in Sabine's hands now.
As for the prospect of seeing Kenobi: who will voice him?
Lastly, I'll share a couple tidbits from people who saw and/or were involved with the production of Rogue One:
"Fans of the Disney XD animated series Star Wars: Rebels should keep their eyes wide open for a number of special surprises. (That’s all I’m going to say about that.)"
"STAR WARS REBELS co-creators @dave_filoni and @Kinberg. Watch (and listen!) closely for Rebels easter eggs in #RogueOne!"
There is a glimpse of the Ghost amid the Rebel fleet in one of the trailers. So keep your eyes & ears peeled when you go see the film!
posted by The Nutmeg of Consolation at 10:42 AM on December 13, 2016
Yah, the last two episodes are working to restore my faith in the season over all. I hope the back half can be as well produced. Overall, this season has a lot more in common with the first season in terms of successful episodes.
Geez, I hate the dark saber. Or is it, Dark Saber? I've seen different places capitalize it and not capitalize it that way, and others run it together. I wrote a review where I went with the lowercase and I'm still not sure if that's right.
For our purposes, I think it's safe to say it's the original dark saber that belonged to Pre Vizsla in The Clone Wars, which Maul was given after he killed the head of Death Watch in a duel. I have a glaring gap in my canon with Son of Dathomir, but I assume Maul managed to hold on to it through that Dark Horse storyline. So Sabine's picking up of the weapon at the end of the episode is pretty important and will carry with it a weight of significance when we return to Mandalore, especially since our Imperial Mandalorian Sell Out from "Imperial Supercommandos" will instantly recognize it and probably think himself worthy of its possession.
While it's always possible Ewan McGregor might volunteer to voice Kenobi, my best bet, saying we do get him, is that it will be James Taylor, who voiced him in The Clone Wars. Incidentally, Taylor actually did the voice for Obi-Wan during part of Rey's vision in The Force Awakens, but his work was replaced when McGregor was suddenly free to record the line(s).
I can't wait to hunt for the Rebel easter eggs in the movie. I'll be seeing it Thursday evening and I was absolutely giddy over the shot of the Ghost in the fleet scene in the trailer. GIDDY, I TELL YOU, ABSOLUTELY.
Otherwise, I'm trying to stay away from all news Rogue One, something made extremely harder with the review embargo dropping. Thankfully I've got a work assignment tomorrow that'll keep me pretty occupied and away from the internets.
posted by Atreides at 1:59 PM on December 13, 2016
Geez, I hate the dark saber. Or is it, Dark Saber? I've seen different places capitalize it and not capitalize it that way, and others run it together. I wrote a review where I went with the lowercase and I'm still not sure if that's right.
For our purposes, I think it's safe to say it's the original dark saber that belonged to Pre Vizsla in The Clone Wars, which Maul was given after he killed the head of Death Watch in a duel. I have a glaring gap in my canon with Son of Dathomir, but I assume Maul managed to hold on to it through that Dark Horse storyline. So Sabine's picking up of the weapon at the end of the episode is pretty important and will carry with it a weight of significance when we return to Mandalore, especially since our Imperial Mandalorian Sell Out from "Imperial Supercommandos" will instantly recognize it and probably think himself worthy of its possession.
While it's always possible Ewan McGregor might volunteer to voice Kenobi, my best bet, saying we do get him, is that it will be James Taylor, who voiced him in The Clone Wars. Incidentally, Taylor actually did the voice for Obi-Wan during part of Rey's vision in The Force Awakens, but his work was replaced when McGregor was suddenly free to record the line(s).
I can't wait to hunt for the Rebel easter eggs in the movie. I'll be seeing it Thursday evening and I was absolutely giddy over the shot of the Ghost in the fleet scene in the trailer. GIDDY, I TELL YOU, ABSOLUTELY.
Otherwise, I'm trying to stay away from all news Rogue One, something made extremely harder with the review embargo dropping. Thankfully I've got a work assignment tomorrow that'll keep me pretty occupied and away from the internets.
posted by Atreides at 1:59 PM on December 13, 2016
I have purposely piled up work for this week so I will have limited idle time to watch/read reviews of R1.
posted by French Fry at 8:10 AM on December 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by French Fry at 8:10 AM on December 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
Heads up!
The second half of Rebels starts this weekend AND a knock your socks off trailer for the rest of the season was just released today.
posted by Atreides at 2:50 PM on January 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
The second half of Rebels starts this weekend AND a knock your socks off trailer for the rest of the season was just released today.
posted by Atreides at 2:50 PM on January 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
This episode is really going to give wind to those Obi+Satine=Sabine folks
My favorite part was Maul not killing Ezra, his weird genuine fondness for him (or projected guilt about Savage?) is a super great turn for the character.
Now hopefully next episode will be hondo and zeb robbing a space liquor store :/
posted by French Fry at 8:13 AM on December 13, 2016 [2 favorites]