Star Wars Rebels - 'Twin Suns'

"If there's a bright centre to the universe, we're on the planet that is farthest
from it."

It's time to follow the Holocrons, as Ezra answers the call of Maul one last time.

As the Rebels of Phoenix Squadron make the final preparations for their mission to retake Lothal, Ezra is troubled by nightmares of Maul and his quest for vengeance against Obi-Wan Kenobi. He feels that he ought to go to Tatooine, but Hera insists that their mission must come first. Ultimately, Ezra chooses to ignore this advice, stealing a training A-wing to fly to the world of two suns in search of the means to defeat the Sith, accompanied somewhat against his will by Chopper. On Tatooine, the Jedi holocron leads Ezra to its Sith partner. Tusken raiders destroy his ship(1) and soon the desert overcomes him, as Maul planned, and Kenobi emerges from hiding to save the boy. Obi-Wan laughs off the suggestion that he might destroy the Sith, then sends Ezra away while he faces Maul.

Despite it's brevity, this duel has more references to The Phantom Menacethan one could shake a lightsabre at.

And you know what? That's pretty much it. That's all the plot there is in this episode. No sidelines, no B-plot; just Ezra, Kenobi, and Maul, and at the end of it, the rematch that fandom has been waiting for since Maul made his canon reappearance in The Clone Wars(2). The fight itself is classic samurai/western material; lots of build up as the two shift their positions, gauge each other's strength, and then an almost laughably(3) brief, utterly decisive exchange of blows. It's a thing of beauty.

Ezra returns to Chopper Base with a fresh focus, while Obi-Wan rides out to a moisture farm where a woman is calling her young nephew in for the night.

That final scene is a thing of beauty, using the so-familiar skyscape of Tatooine, the outline of the moisture farm, and recycled audio of Aunt Beru calling for Luke to perfectly evoke the memory of the first Star Wars, before playing out the episode with the slow, melancholy strings of Luke's Tatooine theme. It's telling of how obviously important this is that when the screen pulled out to the trailers for whatever was on next, as is the wont with modern TV, Disney XD kept the music playing and muted the trailers.

 

Da-dah dah da-da-dah-dah da-da da-dah-dah da-da-dah-dah.

'Twin Suns' ultimately serves to highlight the futility of Maul's quest for revenge, and in a meta sense how little impact he has on the Star Wars universe, for all his iconic status. His quest was a distraction, for us and for Ezra, from where the real action of Rebels is taking place. Obi-Wan's story, Luke's story, are not divorced from Rebels, but neither are they intrinsically linked. Just because this is their show, they aren't suddenly at the heart of everything. Maul thought his quest was the stuff of legend, but of course it was always fated that it would fail and he would be forgotten.

(1) One review noted Ezra's failure to use his lightsabre against the Sand People, but Wookiepedia notes that, despite the visual effect, Tusken cycler rifles fire solid projectiles, which can not necessarily be deflected with a lightsabre.

(2) Full disclosure, I've not seen much of The Clone Wars, so I don't know how many rematches this makes.

(3) Almost; the actual laughs in this episode are pretty scant.