So I watched Twin Suns this weekend twice and the fight more. I also had time to digest it and come up with my take. I know there is a Lot of hate towards Rebels and this episode too. But I am talking about the episode only and will ignore the "Disney Sucks and I Hate Kids Shows" nonsense that doesn't help the discussion at all. That said let's get into it.

So I can tell the writers spent a lot of time on the story arc and how to connect the conflict between Obi-Wan and Maul to the Ghost Crew and was ok with the idea of Maul manipulating Ezra for his own purpose. I was even happier when Obi-Wan was like you're in the wrong place and a shouldn't be here. The voice actor for Obi was dead on and really shocked me how they got his personality and voice down to an art form. I was also impressed with how they handled Obi-Wan's conversation with Maul as if he was past their feud and ready to just let Maul go without conflict. He knew Maul was hunting him and was just casually avoiding him. He even knew where Maul's ship was.

Now Maul was spent trying to navigate the harsh land of Tatooine and over stretching his senses looking for Obi-Wan. He almost seemed maddened by his losses and was just looking for one final battle to justify his losses. He was a broken man lost.

Obi-Wan on the other hand looked refreshed and like he has been in meditation for some time, which he most likely was, and we know he is at a point where he is ready to become one with the Force. He is at the peak of his power.

Now that we have that in context we can address the battle. It was a homage to Seven Samurai or Miyamoto Musashi and really showed how far Obi-Wan has come in his time since they last met. Obi-Wan was the Master while Maul was still a struggling student. Obi-Wan didn't even consider Maul a threat while they talked but once Maul threatened Luke Obi stop talking drew his blade and sized Maul up like a old school Samurai. It was at that point Maul was dead.

So it took Only three strokes, two defensive and when Maul tried to use the same move that killed Obi-Wan's master Obi countered it with the killing blow. Totally Seven Samurai style.

I know now the hype up till the show was one where everyone expect a ton of flipping epic battle but this is old master Ben we're talking about, not younger Clone Wars conflicted General Kenobi. So while I understand the disappointment about such a quick battle it was the one that should have happened. Maul just was no longer in the same league as Obi-Wan and true sword masters don't trade many blows. Two to three strokes are all most of them end up being. But my god, I can watch Obi-Wan's stance and form all day! They really watched Samurai movies a lot to get that down.

While Ashoka's and Vader's battle will be one of my favorite epic battles with Obi-Wan vs Maul and Savage is a close second, this battle will be my favorite for form and mastery. The etiquette they held up to the battle was legendary and Obi-Wan's mercy holding Maul as he died showed his Jedi compassion he had as he watched the man who killed his master, his true love and many innocent civilians. He just saw a dying man, not the horrible monster Maul once was.

This is definitely going to be a favorite for me.

Can't agree more. My gut reaction was, "****, that was pathetically short." But then I thought about it. It really feels like they were trying to show how powerful Obi-wan has become.

Also, Maul's last line - "He will avenge us. "

Not "me." Not "me and my brother." Us. F---ing US . It puts this spin on Maul's character, and perhaps the whole Skywalker plotline, that all of this pain and suffering is not of their own doing or desire, but because of this ancient Jedi/Sith, Light Side/Dark Side struggle that is bigger than all of them. And the Chosen One is supposed to bring balance and end it. By doing that, he'll avenge all of the deaths and the pain and suffering on both sides. Qui-gon, Savage, Anakin.

I would also posit that Maul quickly realized Obi-wan didn't want to find him, and just wanted to let him go. That he WOULD let him go. But Maul couldn't. After everything, he couldn't just walk away. This feud was all he had left. But he managed to find the one thing that could goad Obi-wan into igniting his lightsaber. The one thing Obi-wan had sacrificed everything for.

I agree with all your points.

That said I've been watching reactions and it's almost funny watching younger viewers (in their 20's) reactions because this kind of cinema is old school and most modern action films make it look like all battles have to be fancy moves with long action. It's like they are seeing what real sword fights actually look like for the first time.

It kind of reminds me of Gladiator, (I know, I know) when Maximus was cutting down his opponent's with one strike and his Master was trying to convince him to slow it down because the audience wanted more drawn out action not mastery level swordsmanship.

"Are you entertained!?!?!?"

Maul died in Phantom Menace.

Cut in half and fell dying into the Abyss.

It took me a LONG time to get over the fact that CW resurrected him. It felt so lame. Still does.

However, Maul has since grown on me, and both in CW and Rebels he's a rather interesting character.

I can definitely say I wasn't thrilled initially with all the hype, and kind of felt like it was another filler episode. But I get it the more I sit and think about it.

I do believe Filoni when he says there is a ton of material that was made for the episode but was cut for time. I can see where this episode could have been much longer than it was.

I thought the episode was rather boring and bland, but has a ton of story telling content and wrapping up and connecting many stories. I still don't get why Rebels needed to connect to the OT. It seemed forced with that last scene when Luke is called. It wasn't needed IMO, but it also begs the question if that scene is set immediately before ANH, and if the Rebels crew actually was in Rogue One if Ezra is on Tatooine before ANH, when he should be recovering from the battle of Scarrif.

I have a lot of plot hole questions and maybe I'm not explaining them properly.

Still a good episode. Kind of like the calm before the storm for the finale.

10 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:

I thought the episode was rather boring and bland, but has a ton of story telling content and wrapping up and connecting many stories. I still don't get why Rebels needed to connect to the OT. It seemed forced with that last scene when Luke is called. It wasn't needed IMO, but it also begs the question if that scene is set immediately before ANH, and if the Rebels crew actually was in Rogue One if Ezra is on Tatooine before ANH, when he should be recovering from the battle of Scarrif.

I have a lot of plot hole questions and maybe I'm not explaining them properly.

Still a good episode. Kind of like the calm before the storm for the finale.

When this Episode plays out, Its still ~2 Years before the battle of Scarif.

Its a parallel to the Scene where Luke is called in (Because you see, he's running in right away), rather than captain-morgan-ing out in the Sunsets.

Which, artistically, goes to show that Luke has been Wistful and wanting to get out of his dreary Moisture-farming existance for years when we see him in ANH.

6 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

When this Episode plays out, Its still ~2 Years before the battle of Scarif.

Its a parallel to the Scene where Luke is called in (Because you see, he's running in right away), rather than captain-morgan-ing out in the Sunsets.

Which, artistically, goes to show that Luke has been Wistful and wanting to get out of his dreary Moisture-farming existance for years when we see him in ANH.

Makes sense. I don't really keep up with all the articles and what not anymore so I'm just clueless haha

Hopefully that fills in some plot holes for you, at least.

I don't keep up with all of the articles, either... I don't get to see the show on Release (usually its a replay afterwards), so I have to avoid Rebels Recon and such, because otherwise I get spoilered, and frankly, I get enough of that crap here

But we're still in the leadup to Scariff.

There are rumours that the end of Rebels / Fourth Season / Fifth Season will feature the Battle of Scarif from their perspective, and then the immediate fallout... But those are rumours (hence why its not settled on when, even if it is going to happen - no-one can know a guess that way.)

But for the moment, its still all in the leadup to it.

On 3/21/2017 at 10:03 AM, Undeadguy said:

I still don't get why Rebels needed to connect to the OT.

They are looking at Rebels as a new entry point into Star Wars. The producers have the attitude that this might be the first Star Wars thing a kid sees. Helps make those 40 year old OT movies more relevant to a kid.

I may show my 2-year-old Rebels before the OT when he's old enough to start watching either of them.

I was surprised the battle ended as quickly as it did, but I was pleased with it. Not every battle has to be an epic lightsaber clash... this exchange immediately reminded me of old samurai moves. This was a masterful battle, and I didn't understand that there was hate for it.

I am surprised that Maul didn't just threaten the Lars homestead to draw out Obi-wan instead. Even if Maul was unaware of the special connection, Obi-wan would rush to defend innocents. It didn't just have to be Ezra, another force user. Erzra could have seen the warning in the force still, and came to Master Obi-wan's aid as he did in the show. But then we'd be seeing Luke, possibly interacting with Ezra, and I guess Rebels can't do that?

I would have been much more satisfied with the episode if that was the case. Maul not going after the Lars Homestead just feels like a massively wasted opportunity, especially after taking all that effort to provide an excuse to visit Tattooine.

On 3/21/2017 at 10:21 AM, Drasnighta said:

Hopefully that fills in some plot holes for you, at least.

I don't keep up with all of the articles, either... I don't get to see the show on Release (usually its a replay afterwards), so I have to avoid Rebels Recon and such, because otherwise I get spoilered, and frankly, I get enough of that crap here

But we're still in the leadup to Scariff.

There are rumours that the end of Rebels / Fourth Season / Fifth Season will feature the Battle of Scarif from their perspective, and then the immediate fallout... But those are rumours (hence why its not settled on when, even if it is going to happen - no-one can know a guess that way.)

But for the moment, its still all in the leadup to it.

Well I did put SPOILERS in the title because I didn't want to spoil anything for anyone. So if you were spoiled here I really did try and warn people.

But David and the other writers did a good job covering up plot holes here. What a lot of people don't realize is the depth of thought put into keeping the canon seamless. In this episode they made sure not to use the name Obi-Wan and instead called him Kenobi, keeping ANH's Obi-Wan's statement about not hearing that name for a long time. (I still think the biggest hole for me still is that Obi-Wan didn't recognize R2 in Episode 4. Still a huge face palm moment now.)

I mean I like to think I know a lot about Star Wars lore but whenever I hear David Filoni or his writers talking about where they get their inspirations and concepts from I find myself thinking "Nerd!" when they rattle off lore like they are talking about their own siblings.

I did think it was a little silly and anti-climactic. I wouldn't have needed a long drawn out fight, but even just a little more; a dozen exchanges would have been much more bearable.

Also, I think Obi-Wan did recognize R2 in ANH, I just think that he played it off. (he did play a lot close to the chest after all). I think there is a more recent novelization of ANH that confirms this by creating a brief exchange between Obi-Wan and R2 on the Falcon. (though would be an obvious RetCon)

It seems to be an unfortunate trend that quick and one-sided fights get dismissed as anti-climactic. I don't really follow Rebels, but the fight came up in my recommended videos on YouTube. I thought it was excellent. Shows what happens when someone tries to go wild against a more controlled and skilled opponent, especially when Maul tries to smack Obi Wan in the face. He obviously didn't consider that Obi Wan might have planned a counter to that move (probably before he even engaged Maul after Qui Gonn died). Maul established himself as a danger when he went on an Inquisitor killing spree but Obi Wan wrecked him pretty good the first time they fought, and while Maul was recovering Obi Wan was fighting in the Clone Wars. That, and as one guy on YouTube said, you never want to rush in blinded by rage against a Soresu master. I also really liked the conversation after the fight.

I do want to commend the writers for their attention to detail. Things like Maul trying to use the same trick that killed Qui Gonn, everyone saying "Kenobi" instead of using his first name, and Maul's tendency to incorporate a lot of kicks and handle strikes when fighting. I remember watching Maul fight the Inquisitors with a friend when that episode came out, and the first reaction we both had was that it was good seeing Maul continue bringing kung fu to sword fights. Throughout the series he seems to be one of the only people that does that in lightsaber fights, and it was what enabled him to turn his fight against two Jedi into a duel with Qui Gonn (and what gave him the opening to kill Qui Gonn).