'Star Wars: Rebels' arcs

Hopefully the site won’t mess up the page formatting with the number list like TCW, but we’ll see how it goes

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A project from late April to early May ’22 that was my second approach to these animated arcs projects. As with the ‘Clone Wars’ project I uploaded here recently, I took all of the dedicated two-, three- and four-episode stories and put them in their larger stories, sans the ‘Rebels’ style opening a few minutes into the episode for all but the first episode of that arc – with one five-episode ‘mega-arc’ again.

Once again, I always found that having every deliberate story arc self-contained as its own thing makes the story much easier to digest. And since all the episodes here are from the same seasons this time around, I’ve also found it makes developing as well as viewing things much smoother now than TCW’08.

There was no official name of arcs this time from a Lucasfilm source, so I just used names I invented, going so far as putting them in the credits of the arcs’ last episodes in lieu of the original episode titles.

Like the CW’08 project, especially the non-battley arcs, the episodes are grouped together based on what clearly comes afterwards in the timeline. Even if it’s something that isn’t back-to-back and maybe happens a week later – as long as there isn’t another episode first – then it’s put together in the same arc regardless, because it still feels relevant in that grouping.

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Season 1:

ARC 01. “Spark of Rebellion” – 44 mins, only a minor edit of the prologue version of the pilot episode. I’ve always felt the reveal Kanan is a Jedi at the end would be bigger, better and more impactful if there were less clues in the episode already - specifically, Ezra finding the whole lightsaber hilt in his cabin. Ezra can have the Holocron, because it’s necessary for the plot and even if he wasn’t a Jedi, Kanan having it would be a good tie-in and maybe mean he’s just a smuggler or something, so it’s still otherwise viable cutting one but keeping the other. It does make the scene a little choppy unfortunately, the sound and light reflection of the blade in the cabin is prominent alongside the important dialogue I can’t cut, but otherwise it’s okay.

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ARC 02. “Pull of The Dark Side” – 1hr 5mins, episodes: 1x08 “Empire Day”, 1x09 “Gathering Forces” & 1x10 “Path of The Jedi”. Name comes from the Dark Side starting to seep into Ezra as he’s in a rough state of mind, and he taps into it to use it against his enemy, also dealing with the aftermath of that same encounter in the Lothal Jedi Temple – all from the quote from the apparition of the Grand Inquisitor as a Jedi Temple Guard in Season 2.

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ARC 03. “The Spark Ignites” – 1hr 27mins, episodes: 1x12 “Vision of Hope”, 1x13 “Call to Action”, 1x14 “Rebel Resolve” & 1x15, “Fire Across the Galaxy”. Name comes from the Spark of Rebellion officially catching fire as multiple Rebel cells all come together in an alliance to save Kanan on Mustafar.

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Season 2:

ARC 04. “Return of the Clones” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 2x03 “The Lost Commanders” & 2x04: “Relics of the Old Republic”. Name comes from the sixth and second respective Skywalker Saga live action films, and works very well as a mix that’s relevant to the animated episodes, I think.

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ARC 05. “Family Matters” arc – 1hr 5mins, episodes: 2x10-12 “The Future of The Force”, “Legacy” and “A Princess on Lothal”. The title of this arc is a bit of a play on words. TFoTF centres on the Force-sensitive children being taken from their families: their parents or other guardians, and ‘Legacy’ resolves the fates of Ezra’s parents, which has always been a big (family) matter to him. Lastly, APoL has members of the Organa family lend their assistance, while Ezra’s “found family” helps him to shoulder the burden of his parents’ passing – so even though they aren’t related, their help and support is still important and valuable to him – it ‘matters’.

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ARC 06. “A New Home and a New Threat” arc – 1hr 48 mins, episodes: 2x18 “Shroud of Darkness”, 2x19 “The Forgotten Droid”, 2x20 “The Mystery of Chopper Base”, 2x21 “Twilight of The Apprentice”, Parts 1&2. The show’s single “mega-arc”, and the name comes from Phoenix Group finally finding a location for their permanent base close to Lothal, the Krykna they face at their new home and the Dark Side in Maul & the Sith Holocron being unleashed from Malachor V at the end of the season.

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Season 3:

*Sidenote: I’ve always found the structure of Season 3 a little iffy. It’s clear there are dedicated arcs that run through it, but the season tends to visit and then leave episodes of each theme before doing something else and coming back to that arc again later, rather than strictly rigid blocks like The Clone Wars.

From what I can tell, and with the names I’ve given them, they are: “Old Wounds” that deals with Maul’s quest for vengeance/hope (Holocrons of Fate, Visions and Voices, Twin Suns). There’s “Thrawn’s Hunt” where he gradually narrows down the location of the Atollon base (Warhead, Through Imperial Eyes, Double Agent Droid). “The Growing Rebellion” arc where the Rebellion, or just Phoenix Group, come across new assets for the cause (The Antilles Extraction, Hera’s Heroes, Iron Squadron, Ghosts of Geonosis 1&2, Secret Cargo). “Prepare for Attack” where they look for things for the attack on Lothal – weapons, intel, etc (The Last Battle, The Wynkahthu Job, An Inside Man). Lastly, the Imperial Mandalore arc, which is self-explanatory (Imperial Supercommandos, Trials of the Darksaber, Legacy of Mandalore).

However, the release order factors greatly into things, so it’s not like I can group these together as easily as TCW. For example: in ‘Old Wounds’, THoF clearly takes place before ‘The Last Battle’, because the ‘Phantom’ slot on the Ghost is still empty, but in VaV the Phantom II is clearly visible in the background during Hera’s briefing – so you can’t put the 3 episodes together in the same group, because part of the story is clearly missing. Similarly, you can’t have “Imperial Supercommandos” smoothly with the rest of the ‘Imperial Mandalore’ arc because there’s the question of where the Darksaber suddenly came from, so that group of 3 doesn’t work either.

I think it works better this way: having the arcs’ episodes split makes them more feasible. The rebellion grows more slowly, which makes sense because it’s difficult and secretive, Thrawn narrowing his search for the base over time creates the feeling of a slowly tightening net, creating more suspense. Lastly, taking time to gather resources for the attack makes more sense with finding old deposits the Empire somehow missed that aren’t so degraded by now they’re unusable, and so on.*

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ARC 07. “Corruption of The Sith Holocron” arc – 1hr 5mins, episodes 3x01 “Steps into Shadow” & 3x02 “The Holocrons of Fate”. Name comes from the Sith Holocron, and the “The Presence” entity living within it getting inside Ezra’s head and changing him, for the more aggressive and selfish, until he’s put right again – and Maul’s obsession with the knowledge it will give him for his own ends.

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Sidenote: the release order of Season 3 has the episode “An Inside Man” coming before “Visions and Voices” – but they should be reversed. At the briefing in VaV, they talk about the scouting mission to Lothal they’re planning and asking if Thrawn is there – but if the release order is correct then they should have already done that mission and they would know Thrawn is there because they just saw him in the flesh. So, I put VaV first and AIM second in my own watching order.

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ARC 08. “The Growing Rebellion” arc – 44 mins, episodes 3x03 “The Antilles Extraction” & 3x04 “Hera’s Heroes”. So, this is kind of a proxy-arc to be honest, like a marriage of convenience. The episodes are released back-to-back and are both part of the same arc that runs sporadically throughout the season, so putting them together is very simple – as is naming it what it is. But you don’t have to download it if you don’t want to and want to keep the episodes separate, so it’s all good.

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ARC 09. “Precarious Allies” arc – 44 mins, episodes 3x05 “The Last Battle” & 3x06 “Imperial Supercommandos”. In TLB, the Ghost crew acquires the Phantom II, and in IMSU, Hera mentions to be careful with it because “they just got it” – so it makes sense that’s the first mission since getting it. This makes it another “proxy-arc” in a sense, this time: it’s clear the episodes happen one after the other, but it’s also clear they don’t have a lot in common theme or story-wise. Again – you don’t have to download it if you don’t want to, so if you want to keep the episodes separate, that’s good. Name comes from the battle droids and Fenn Rau/the Mandalorian Protectors – they’re situational allies working for convenience, but they still live to fight another day, despite the lack of choice and/or trust.

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*Sidenote: Truthfully, I’ve not really liked the first arc of this season. It makes more sense to me that VaV takes place immediately after THoF – because of what Maul wants and the urgency with which he seems to want it, why Would he hang around elsewhere for any reason first? Maybe take a week to gather yourself and collect your thoughts, but not half a season’s worth? The problem is THoF begins with Kanan and Ezra apart from everyone, and no other episode in the season ends with them like that, so putting them seamlessly together isn’t easy – the closest is ‘An Inside Man’, but Chopper’s there.

I think ideally, if I could ‘invent’ another story arc like I did for “Castle of Treachery” in TCW, I would have ‘An Inside Man’ followed by THoF & VaV back-to-back as a “mid-season finale trilogy”. It sounds like a good idea as you get a scouting trip to Lothal, when Lothal and the planned attack is a consistent theme throughout the season, and attention on the last/most climactic story of the previous season, in a way that all kind of naturally flows and works well. Ultimately, having it in its current state is the best by default: going from Kanan and Ezra alone on Atollon talking about the Sith Holocron transitioning to them alone talking about the Sith Holocron on the Rebel frigate bridge works well enough as is.*

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ARC 10. “Ghosts of Geonosis” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 3x12 & 3x13 “Ghosts of Geonosis, Parts 1&2”. Name is this for very obvious reasons.

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ARC 11. “Imperial Mandalore” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 3x15 “Trials of the Darksaber” & 3x16 “Legacy of Mandalore”. Name feels very straightforward with this, but I did make a small change to the story. Sabine seems to have too many skills and accomplishments at just 16 (blades, blasters, explosives AND piloting, AND beskar reforging for her 500yo armour, AND ship/tech repairs/inventing and so on….so I kind of cut it back a bit. Now when Kanan offers the Darksaber to Sabine, she mentions she IS proficient [with a blade] but immediately cuts to the Darksaber being a lightsaber – so it’s different and it’s a different ballgame to train with and master with practice. This feels better – the conversation is kept on that one kind of weapon in front of them, and now it’s like she’s aware that she’s still a novice at some things and she’ll have to work for a good understanding and handle on a blade like THIS.

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ARC 12. “Zero Hour” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 3x21 & 3x22 “Zero Hour, Parts 1&2”. Name is for very obvious reasons again.

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Season 4:

ARC 13. “Heroes of Mandalore” – 43 mins, episodes: 4x01-02 “Heroes of Mandalore, Parts 1&2”. Name is for very obvious reasons again.

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ARC 14. “In the Name of The Rebellion” – 43 mins, episodes 4x03-04 “In the Name of The Rebellion, Parts 1&2”. Name is for very obvious reasons again and I made some changes. Using the relay rather than destroying it is the better plan, tactically and logically present and future – so now Sabine no longer makes moves to destroy it when the plan goes awry, now it’s more like they’re sticking to the better original plan before Saw shows. Also, Saw’s speech to Ezra and Sabine after he stuns them is gone – because he just stunned them, so they can’t hear him, so why say it over their unconscious bodies?

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Sidenote: I’ve often headcanoned that having this final season would be better at 22 episodes rather than 16, especially with the story before Lothal probably being better at 8 episodes so it’s an even 1/3 before Lothal and 2/3 on the surface. These extra 4 episodes before Lothal could have been 2 more double-episode arcs or a single 4-episode one or whatever – numerous things from earlier in the show that were left open-ended were not all addressed in the end, so this would have been a good chance to tie everything up. Things like the Wookiees from the pilot episode, Saw Gererra seeing Ezra again as he said (it’s sci-fi, if they say something will happen, it WILL – doesn’t matter how long it takes or how unbelievably convoluted the explanation is, it does happen). The latter could possibly explain the injuries he has in ‘Rogue One’, as this was close to that in the timeline and released before ‘Andor’, but the other show’s second season could end up showing it instead, so it’s all good.

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ARC 15. “The Liberation of Lothal: Part I – Demonstrations of Will” arc – 1hr 5mins, episodes 4x05 “The Occupation”, 4x06 “Flight of The Defender” & 4x07 “Kindred”. Name is a reference to several things in the three episodes: the Rebels’ will to go to ground on Lothal and free the planet in TO, the TIE Defender’s flight (and unplanned combat) test in FoTD, and the Loth-Wolves helping the heroes in a way that sort of demonstrates the “will” of Lothal being with them to help them against the enemy.

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Sidenote: it strikes me that this part of the season would also have been useful to pad out here to 22 episodes instead of 16. At the end of “Kindred” they get to the south hemisphere of Lothal and it’s just them and the clothes on their backs, then at the beginning of the very next episode “Crawler Commandeers”, suddenly they have allies, crates of supplies to make an outpost, if not a small base. So where and when did that come from? Even if it was a small side-story for 2 episodes, it would have been good to tie things into Season 3 by explaining those people and resources are Morad Sumar’s from his early efforts against The Empire on Lothal while Phoenix Group were offworld possibly.

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ARC 16. “The Liberation of Lothal: Part II – Attack and Ascension” – 1hr 27mins, episodes: 4x08-11 “Crawler Commandeers”, “Rebel Assault”, “Jedi Night” & “DUME”. Name is from the first two episodes leading up to and centring on the Rebels’ attack on the Lothal industrial complex – on the Yavin end and the Lothal ground-crew end – and the fact JN & DM were released on the same day, and were originally going to be titled “Ascension” parts 1&2 (https://www.starwars.com/series/star-wars-rebels/a-world-between-worlds-episode-guide). I also added a white-grey funerary coloured credits for this arc for the edit text at the end, to go with the themes of loss of Kanan and the credits of those released episodes.

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ARC 17. “The Liberation of Lothal: Part III – Past, Present and Future” – 45 mins, episodes: 4x12 “Wolves and a Door” & 4x13 “A World Between Worlds”. Name is from the fact these two episodes were originally planned to be a single instalment under this name, before being split into two episodes – and, again, released on the same day (https://www.starwars.com/series/star-wars-rebels/a-world-between-worlds-episode-guide), so keeping it as a dedicated two-parter makes good sense to me. One thing I did do was take out Kanan’s force-ghost appearing – it’s a touching moment, but we just see Kanan die, then we see him as the DUME wolf, then we see him as a ghost, then we see him again through the WBW. Surely a death packs more of a punch and has more meaning if it’s seen and then not immediately ‘unseen’ in a sense? In the Loth-Wolf it’s good because it ties into the planet and the Force on Lothal, and in WBW we see him again as his final lesson to Ezra about letting go. So those two are kept, but the force-ghost feels like it needs to go, we see and hear a lot about his relationship with Hera in the remaining episodes with the Kalikori or Jacen and such anyway.

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ARC 18. “The Liberation of Lothal: Part IV – All Paths Come Together” arc – 1hr 5mins, episodes: 4x14-16 “A Fool’s Hope” & “Family Reunion, and Farewell”. Name is from Kanan’s line to Ezra “All paths are coming together now” from the episode ‘Kindred’, which Ezra reiterates in ‘Flight of The Defender’ – it feels very relevant to the season, and to the last story of the entire show where all the fates get tied up, story threads finish and everything comes to a close.

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No 19. Epilogue: “5 ABY – Finally Free”– 3 mins, the last few minutes of the Season 4 episode “Family Reunion, and Farewell”. Name is from the state of Lothal in the epilogue – they fought hard against The Empire and won their freedom, and they’re still enjoying it years later as they should. Again, separated to keep it self-contained on the timeline, and currently lives neatly between my 4ABY and 6ABY Tusken episodes of my edit of “The Book of Boba Fett”.#

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That was not as long as the TCW’08 post, thankfully.

It’s a Mega link like everything else.

Footnote: I am in no capacity a professional editor or VFX artist, so some areas are visibly mostly good as I have to be realistic with the footage in front of me and what I can do with it. If you do have any particular notes and feedback, feel free to give me your thoughts, but please be constructive and don’t be an ass about it.