We’re back! After last week’s amazing and action-packed episode, Star Wars: Rebels is taking a very different turn this week with Zeb finding out he’s not the last of the Lasat.
So let’s dive into our Five Thoughts on the episode, “Legends Of The Lasat”! But beware, for spoiler lay ahead.
1. Captain Orellios?
This week’s episode brings a lot of revelations about Zeb’s character. Here we learn that he was previously Captain Garazeb Orellios of the Lasan Honour Guard and that he’s an immediately recognisable and revered figure, even after to all this time, to other Lasat’s. This is interesting to me as it’s a stark contrast to the background muscle persona he’s cultivated with the Ghost Crew. We’ve seen him show signs of survivor’s guilt in the past, but it’s interesting to see just how much he changed and gave up being in a position of power.
After all we see in this episode and the revelation that not only is Zeb not the last Lasat, but there’s an entire world out there of them, I find it interesting that a lot of Zeb’s honorifics mean even less now than they did before. He’s no longer Captain Garazeb Orellios, he’s no longer Zeb the Last Lasat… he’s just Zeb. I’m interested to see where the show takes his character now that we’ve learned this.
2. Lasat Refugees
Yikes…
I was so worried about this turn of events. With the surge of stories about immigration in Europe in 2015, it’s no surprise that media would try to explore a lot of the conflict in those stories. However, after those Doctor Who episodes last year, I’ve been worried every time it’s come up that it would be handled without any sense of tact and paint the refugees as inhuman and villainous.
Here, thankfully, it does manage to swerve away from that as the plot point about the Lasat’s being refugees is pretty much just intended to create the surprise of who they actually are, but the episode really had me worried there. Especially given the Lasat’s focus on returning to their homeland by use of an ancient prophecy, I was very close to pulling at my collar while watching this.
3. Hondo’s Back!
You know who I love? I love Jim Cummings. He’s one of the most prolific voice actors of all time, is incredibly talented and has single handedly made me like the character of Hondo Ohnaka. Normally, I don’t really take to the selfish criminal character types as they always tend to cause more problems than they solve (as Hondo does frequently in this episode), but there’s something about Hondo having Jim Cummings’ voice that makes me love him.
I was really glad to see him back in this episode. Hopefully he continues to show up in the show.
4. A More Spiritual Star Wars
This was something that really impressed me this episode. Not just giving the Lasat’s a connection to the Force in their own way, but basing the episode’s climax around Zeb’s faith in that connection. The way that was staged around the imploded star cluster was actually a really cool touch because it gave the episode stakes and real weight to the climax without resorting to your standard dogfight fare and elevated it to a new level entirely.
This was also helped by the direction, which was stunning during this scene. Every time the camera pulled back for that extreme long shot of the two ships framed by the way of star matter, I was in awe. Between that and Kevin Kline’s stunning score which really showed that his talents extend beyond making the music feel like John Williams, it felt almost like Star Wars by way of Interstellar.
More like this, please.
5. The Ashla… And The Bogan?
So the Lasats call their connection to what the Jedi call the Force, the Ashla. This is interesting to me as, remembering Ahsoka’s line in the trailer about there always being some truth in legends, this feels like a pretty clear reference to Ashla, the moon of Tython. Tython was home to the original Je’daii and Ashla was one of the two moons, the other being Bogan, which orbited in perfect harmony around Tython. The Je’daii would study the orbits of Ashla and Bogan and use that as the basis for their search for balance in the force.
It’s interesting to me that the show would make a point to reference Ashla when talking about connections to the Force that aren’t necessarily related to Jedi training. It makes me wonder what else they have up their sleeve for the end of this season.
