Star Wars Rebels Remembered

Lucasfilm Animation has never shied away from telling sweeping, emotionally-driven stories, and Star Wars Rebels swiftly took its place alongside The Clone Wars with an opening sequence introducing Darth Vader, the former Anakin Skywalker, now working for the Empire and hunting down the last of his Jedi brethren. But this wasn’t Vader’s story, and before long, the real stars of the show were introduced: Ezra Bridger, a pickpocket with a Han Solo-esque heart of gold; Kanan Jarrus, a former Jedi now in hiding (but not for long!); Zeb Orrelios, a hulking Lasat with a killer Wookiee impression; Sabine Wren, a colorful Mandalorian with an expertise in explosives; Hera Syndulla, everyone’s space mom and the captain of the Ghost; and her loyal droid companion, Chopper (he’s also a war criminal.)

In their first adventure as a team, the members of the Ghost crew deliver food to the starving people of Tarkintown, prove that they don’t abandon one of their own (even though Zeb really tries to leave Ezra in Imperial custody), and manage to save a small contingent of Wookiee captives. If seeing little Kitwarr in binders brought you to tears, you were in for an emotional four seasons.

From Hera’s wise words about compassion and selflessness —“If all you do is fight for your own life, then your life is worth nothing.” — to Obi-Wan’s prescient warning emanating from Kanan’s holocron that “in time, a new hope will emerge,” Star Wars Rebels beautifully set up a story that would connect the age of the Empire to the dawn of the Rebellion. The first season primarily followed the Ghost’s scrappy rebel cell, but they’d soon join up with Fulcrum agent Ahsoka Tano, and go on to help future leaders of the Rebel Alliance including a teenaged Princess Leia — born on Empire Day just like Ezra! — and Senator Mon Mothma of Chandrila as she declared a guerilla war on the Empire.

As Kanan became a Jedi Master to Bridger, they would navigate their connection to the Force with help from the Bendu and take on those looking to hunt down the last remnants of the Jedi, the Inquisitorius, going toe-to-toe and saber-to-saber with the likes of the Grand Inquisitor, Maul (no longer Darth), and Vader (still very much so). Ultimately, it would be their entanglement with Thrawn that would become Ezra’s greatest battle, as each member of the crew had their own harrowing and sometimes heartbreaking arcs over the four seasons of Star Wars Rebels — and later in the Ahsoka series.

But here is where it all began. Ten years ago, a young man stood at the rusted rail of a watchtower on Lothal, in the shadow of an Imperial Star Destroyer. He was very much alone. Then he found his Ghost family.