Star Wars: Rebels

[Mange]

I couldn't find a single example of his concept art for the star destroyer besides that one.

If it's really for TESB, however, then it shows that McQuarrie's art remained stylistically exaggerated even after the model makers designed the original star destroyer for ANH.

It is for TESB. McQuarrie didn't draw any concept art for the Star Destroyer for ANH. After it was decided that Cantwell's Star Destroyer design would be too difficult to film, Joe Johnston drew a single sketch of a revised (and larger) Star Destroyer (the Star Destroyer with four domes). Steve Gawley then revised it a little and made an orthographic drawing and later helped build the model. But you're quite correct.

EDIT: It was difficult to find, but here's Johnston's single sketch: Flickr

It first appeared in Johnston's The Star Wars Sketchbook

[Rogue 9]

Spoiler

Well, that was anticlimactic.

[eMeM]

Spoiler

Another disappointment.
There is no reason for Ezra to be in this episode. He serves no purpose in the story and him even knowing about Tatooine is a plothole. Obviously his actions will not result in any consequences and he probably won't even tell anyone about Kenobi.

Cutting Ezra from this episode would make it better.

Which means it has no place in Rebels. Maul was a mistake. He should have died in TCW

[AMX]

I actually liked this one - they showed that they can do "understated."

Also, I think Ezra's role will actually be of critical importance Spoiler

He will report about Kenobi, and that information will reach Leia Organa

[The Romulan Republic]

I actually liked this one - they showed that they can do "understated."

Also, I think Ezra's role will actually be of critical importance Spoiler

He will report about Kenobi, and that information will reach Leia Organa

Needless in light of Rogue One. Bail Organa sent Leia to Kenobi, and Bail Organa already knew Kenobi was alive. It wouldn't be a stretch for him to know where Kenobi was going either.

[RogueIce]

This was a great episode. The visuals, especially Tatooine at night, were excellent, the music was awesome, and that ending was pretty great. Kenobi is an Old Master now. the way he dispatched Maul is right out of a classic samurai movie, hell even a Western with all the focus on the buildup, and it being over with a single gunshot.

And ending the credits to "Binary Sunset" was inspired.

I have zero complaints about this episode. Perfect from start to finish.

[The Romulan Republic]

So Spoiler

Maul finally bought it? Was the body destroyed to make sure this time?

[RogueIce]

A fuller review of the episode:
Spoiler

This was a pretty great episode. The visuals were fantastic and top notch, Tatooine is beautiful at night! Kevin Kiner outdid himself on the musical front, both with original material and weaving in themes from the PT (Maul's chanting theme from TPM) and the OT. And the plot resolution was...superb, in an unexpected and yet completely gratifying and logical way.

I know a lot of people were hoping for an epic lightsaber fight, but this just fit so much better than any amount of acrobatics ever could. Star Wars has always been inspired by Kurosawa and Westerns, and the final duel between Obi-Wan and Maul would have fit well in both. Obi-Wan is a true Old Master now, in a way Maul never could be, so that sort of focused, precise and utterly final kind of finish is just what Old Masters do in these situations. Plus, like a Western duel at the end of the movie, all the length is in the buildup - which this duel had, with Maul and Kenobi squaring up to each other - but then ends in a pair of gunshots, with one person falling and the other still standing. Just like that. The review on IGN says it better than I can:

• There were some excellent touches done here with Obi-Wan, even in his limited screen time. I absolutely loved how when he ignites his lightsaber, he first makes a prequel era/Ewan McGregor pose, pointing the saber and his two fingers forward like he did when he fought Grievous… and then changes his pose into a less flashy, more Alec Guinness-type style. It’s like for a moment he was going to try and fight like he used to, but then realizes “No, I’m different now.” It both gives us a character choice/change to show the transition into the slower lightsaber fight style of the original trilogy and also sets the stage for him beating Maul so quickly. This is an Obi-Wan who is not looking to have a prolonged fight but simply end things as efficiently as he can. - Eric Goldman, IGN Star Wars Rebels "Twin Suns" Review

Also, it goes back into character for Maul as well: he was broken and defeated long before he ever faced off with Kenobi. He was already dead, Ben's lightsaber didn't kill him, it just made final what was already the case. Maul had nothing, even if he (somehow) won, he had nothing to live for. He went to Tatooine to die, one way or another. Obi-Wan, of course, still had plenty to live for in Luke, which is why he was going to always win, his presence in ANH notwithstanding. That duel was already decided on a metaphysical level long before either duelist drew their lightsabers - there was no point in drawing out what had already been decided before either man got there.

It's also impactful that Obi-Wan clearly has no desire to fight, and only draws his blade when Maul implicitly threatens Luke. It also gives a lot of character to Maul, because despite his clear descent into madness, he's still smart, capable and calculating as he intuits just why Obi-Wan is here he is, as it's not just because he's "in hiding" after the Republic's fall. Because he knows Obi-Wan better than that.

There's also some grumbling about Ezra being there. Well, he fits in well, actually. This was an episode all about closure and not just between Obi-Wan and Maul. But also for Ezra, and his undeniable connection to Maul. Ezra needed to be there so he could finally walk away fully from Maul's influence, cast aside that weakness and vulnerability Maul had created in him, so he could move on and realize what was actually important: his family, as we saw at the end. So aside from the show's conventions mandating him being there, his conflict with Maul also required his presence to fully wrap things up for him, and give him a final closure with Maul. Him being there made perfect sense within the context the show gave us starting back in the season 2 finale.

All in all, it's a pretty great episode and I can't find much, if anything, to really fault it for. An easy 10/10, and a perfect resolution for the Maul/Kenobi conflict started back in Episode I, done in a way I never knew it needed to be done until I saw it today.

[eMeM]

Spoiler

There were some excellent touches done here with Obi-Wan, even in his limited screen time. I absolutely loved how when he ignites his lightsaber, he first makes a prequel era/Ewan McGregor pose, pointing the saber and his two fingers forward like he did when he fought Grievous… and then changes his pose into a less flashy, more Alec Guinness-type style. It’s like for a moment he was going to try and fight like he used to, but then realizes “No, I’m different now.” It both gives us a character choice/change to show the transition into the slower lightsaber fight style of the original trilogy and also sets the stage for him beating Maul so quickly. This is an Obi-Wan who is not looking to have a prolonged fight but simply end things as efficiently as he can. - Eric Goldman, IGN Star Wars Rebels "Twin Suns" Review

There is the famous pottery in this duel, but this is not it.
Obi-Wan changes stances from RotS Obi-Wan to not anything resembling ANH but to TPM Qui-Gon. Also Maul tries to do what he did to Qui-Gon, lightsaber hilt to the face and then stab.

[RogueIce]

There is the famous pottery in this duel, but this is not it.
Obi-Wan changes stances from RotS Obi-Wan to not anything resembling ANH but to TPM Qui-Gon. Also Maul tries to do what he did to Qui-Gon, lightsaber hilt to the face and then stab.

If he's adopting Qui-Gon's stance, it simply makes the symbolism stronger, really.

[Lord Revan]

There is the famous pottery in this duel, but this is not it.
Obi-Wan changes stances from RotS Obi-Wan to not anything resembling ANH but to TPM Qui-Gon. Also Maul tries to do what he did to Qui-Gon, lightsaber hilt to the face and then stab.

If he's adopting Qui-Gon's stance, it simply makes the symbolism stronger, really.

It also seemed similar to Yoda's preferred stance, hard to say for sure since Yoda's body portions are different then those of a human.

[The Romulan Republic]

Having watched the scene...

Its not a grand climactic duel, no, but it doesn't need to be. Its quite an elegant little scene, or, as Thrawn would say, "so artistically done."

What it comes down to is that Kenobi grew as a person since the Prequels, and Maul did not.

[Ender]

Really well done.

Yeah, Ezra didn't need t be there. Yeah him knowing what a Tattooine was, much less where was the writers going "screw it".

But the confrontation between Maul and Kenobi, the way it mirrored TPM, and the growth it showed in Kenobi, was wonderful. Understated and subtle, yet completely just works. So much about the characters was revealed there, just in minor ways.

My only questions - they are in the middle of the uninhabited desert - where did he get fuel for the fire?

And how did he get his dewback back?

Anyways, really great.

[Knife]

Perhaps he is burning Dewback poop.

[Burak Gazan]

At risk of being indelicate, Dewback Dung, dried If I had to guess

[Shroom Man 777]

[Elfdart]

I was about to nod in agreement that Ezra shouldn't have been in this episode, but the more I think about it, I'm convinced he shouldn't be in the show, period. He's a stupid, annoying Mary Sue. This was made more apparent when Ben showed up (great voice acting, by the way).

By the way, great tribute to the Kyuzo scene in The Seven Samurai:

[Galvatron]

Loved the Alec Guinness impression.

[Batman]

They DID do a good job of making him sound like he did in ANH, didn't they.
And I agree this would have worked just fine without Ezra...if it were a TCW episode. It isn't. It's a Rebels episode so they have to involve someone from the main cast and Ezra makes the least amount of no sense.
The visuals were occasionally painful-Ezra's eyebrows in the sandstorm scene (no you are NOT doing a LEGO movie)but overall I liked this episode.
I wasn't aware Tattoine had a moon, leave alone two of them.
Have we seen smoke rise from a lightsabre strike before?

[Lord Revan]

Actually Tatooine has 3 moons, though you generally see them only in the space scenes and not in ones set on the planet surface.

[Batman]

Huh. Shows what I know.

[Lord Revan]

I can't really blame you for not noticing something that was on screen for a few seconds and never was the main focus of the scene. IIRC you can see them on the pan down in ANH SE (I dunno if they're present on the orginal version) but it's a only there for a second or so and always in the backround.

[FaxModem1]

Appropriate end to Maul, a pathetic creature whose closest thing to a friend is either a Jedi he fought and lost to, and a Jedi he tried to make into an apprentice. In the end, only Obi Wan mourns him, and barely at that.

[Shroom Man 777]

I think the "go away this isn't something you should be in" thing Kenobi did was very Western-like actually. Reminds me of the Kid in Unforgiven when William Munny/Clint Eastwood decided to go to town and say hi to Gene Hackman.

[SAMAS]

I just realized this episode managed to bring both Young and Old Kenobi together in the same episode.

Other notes:
Bail Organa kept Kenobi's existence close to the chest. Apparently the only other people who knew were Mon Mothma and Leia.

This episode shows just how hard it is to find somebody on a planet.

Also, check out Rebels Recon. I'd link it here, but I can never get the tag right.