Film, TV, and Entertainment Reviews from the mind of Joey Sack
Review: Star Wars Rebels: “Twin Suns”
Obi-Wan readies himself for one final battle with Maul, the Sith warrior who killed his master and threatens to jeopardize his mission on Tatooine. Copyright Lucasfilm Ltd. and The Walt Disney Company.
*Warning! This review contains spoilers from the episode “Twin Suns” from season three of Star Wars Rebels. You have been warned.*
Star Wars fans and hype go hand-in-hand. We like to pick apart every single moment of every single trailer and dissect every single piece of information to extract as much meaning as humanly possible. We also like to picture the most epic of scenarios in which our heroes may find themselves, only to be left either slightly let down or bitterly disappointed. I was incredibly excited for today’s episode of Star Wars Rebels, “Twin Suns,” mainly for the headliner event that was the final battle between Maul and Obi-Wan “Old Ben” Kenobi. And how many blows did these two combatants trade? Three. And how long did their battle last? About three seconds. And what was the end result? Maul going down with one hit. And dying. Not exactly the end that we expected for a character who got chopped in half and lived nearly three decades after that. It is, of course, partially my fault that I feel this way, since I was the one who became so overly hyped for this episode. And it’s still a good episode, and much better than last week’s episode; but the episode simply felt like an attempt to tie up the loose end that exists now that Ezra is aware of Obi-Wan’s location and the fact that he is still alive, a fact that is supposed to remain hidden until A New Hope. In that, the episode does succeed, and gives us a look at “Old Ben” Kenobi as he appeared to us 40 years ago when he was portrayed by sir Alec Guinness. But is this the episode that was to be the high point of the rocky third season of Rebels? In some ways, yes; in other ways, no.
Maul searching for Kenobi on Tatooine. Copyright Lucasfilm Ltd. and The Walt Disney Company.
The episode begins with Maul wandering the deserts of Tatooine, looking for a way to draw Obi-Wan out of hiding. He decides, as usual, to involve Ezra Bridger, using a piece of the Sith Holocron to lure Ezra to Tatooine, despite the other members of the rebellion trying to convince him not to go after Obi-Wan. What follows is Ezra and Chopper making their way to Tatooine, being stranded, and wandering the desert before Kenobi finds and rescues them. Obviously, this is what Maul was waiting for, and he finally gets his final standoff with the man who forever altered his destiny, while also correctly guessing why Obi-Wan is on Tatooine: to protect someone vital to the survival of the galaxy.
Ezra Bridger and Chopper wandering the desert of Tatooine in search of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Copyright Lucasfilm Ltd. and The Walt Disney Company.
Even though the main attraction of this episode was a bit underwhelming, I still liked the episode as a whole; I just think there was so much potential that was not used to the highest potential. Ever since Maul was revealed to be alive in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and later Star Wars Rebels, fans wanted one thing: for Obi-Wan to finish what he started on Naboo all those years ago and kill Maul once and for all. He succeeds in this, but I don’t think it was the battle that everyone expected. We would expect Obi-Wan to be slower after all those years on Tatooine, and Maul is definitely slower after thirty years of being beaten down by everyone from Jedi to his former master. But to have the battle end in three seconds is very underwhelming. It was still cool to see Obi-Wan finally put an end to his 30-year battle with Maul, and I wasn’t expecting a long battle that lasts the entire third act of the episode; I just wanted it to last longer than three seconds.
Old Ben Kenobi tending to a fire. Copyright Lucasfilm Ltd. and The Walt Disney Company.
But let’s get to a few things that I liked about the episode. Maul’s search for Obi-Wan at the beginning of the episode is a great way to start it off, especially his meme-producing scream of “KENOBI!” Sam Witwer has been portraying Maul in animation since The Clone Wars, and really captures Maul’s desperation to find his old adversary; with roles like Maul, coupled with a couple of appearances as the Emperor in video games and TV, as well as serving as the model and voice actor for the character of Starkiller in the now non-canon The Force Unleashed video game, Witwer has well and truly made himself Star Wars royalty of the small screen. On the subject of Maul, I was a bit confused when his last words to Kenobi were “he will avenge us,” referring to the Chosen One, who Kenobi reveals to be the one he’s protecting. But then I remembered how much Maul had come to hate the Sith, who took everything from him. And the prophecy of the Chosen One states that the Chose One would destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force. Maul may have been aligned with the Dark Side of the Force, but he hated the Sith for casting him aside and hunting him down once they were done with him. In a way, Maul and Kenobi are kindred spirits; Maul’s life was defined and ruined by the Sith, and Obi-Wan saw his life changed and ruined by the Sith during the execution of Order 66. If the Chosen One they both refer to can succeed at destroying the Sith, Maul can hold onto a bit of hope in his final moment.
Beyond Witwer’s portrayal of Maul, Stephen Stanton also has an important character to bring to life in Rebels: Obi-Wan “Old Ben” Kenobi. Stanton has previously voiced several characters in the Star Wars universe: Governor Tarkin on Rebels, and more notably Admiral Raddus in Rogue One. As Kenobi, Stanton had the difficult task of recapturing the same feel as Sir Alec Guinness’s iconic portrayal from 1977. And for the brief time that Kenobi is onscreen, I feel that he captured the original feel of Guinness’s Obi-Wan. If Guinness was still alive and had a better relationship with his role as Obi-Wan, this is what I think he would sound like in this episode. The animators should also be commended, as they get some of the subtle movements that Guinness brought to life as Obi-Wan.
Seeing Tatooine again was a treat, with several nods to the original Star Wars film; Chopper’s hesitation before following Ezra is very reminiscent to the hesitation that R2-D2 showed before going in another direction than C-3PO in A New Hope. The inclusion of the Sand People was also nice to have, although I was surprised that there weren’t any Jawas. Finally, two of the biggest and most enjoyable nods to the original trilogy come at the end. Obi-Wan travels back to his homestead, but travels past the Lars Homestead where the one he protects, Luke Skywalker, is still two years away from starting his grand adventure. We hear the archival audio of Luke’s Aunt Beru (the late Shelagh Fraser) calling to her nephew to come inside, and we see a silhouette of Luke running towards the homestead. Best of all, in my opinion, over the end credits, we hear the classic “Binary Sunset” theme, otherwise known as “The Force” theme, an obvious nod to Luke, Obi-Wan, and the time we spent on Tatooine in this episode.
“Twin Suns” is a good episode. I want to make that perfectly clear. It’s good. All of the voice actors, especially Witwer and Stanton, give excellent performances. The final battle between Kenobi and Maul, while a bit underwhelming, does give this classic Star Wars villain a bit of hope to hold onto in the end. The brief nature of their battle may turn some fans off, but it did give fans a look at what this general, Jedi Master, and hermit has been up to since Revenge of the Sith; watching over a new hope for the galaxy and preparing for any eventuality that could jeopardize his mission. And anyone who still wants an Obi-Wan solo movie can remain hopeful, as there’s still another 17 years for us to explore.
Star Wars Rebels airs Saturdays at 8:30pm ET. The hour-long season three finale, “Zero Hour,” is set to air Saturday, March 25th. May the Force be with you. Always.
