Work referenced: Star Wars Rebels, Season 3, Episode 21/22, "Zero Hour"

Art description: A closeup of the Bendu's face, as he appears in the form of a massive thunderstorm during the Battle of Atollon, attacking both sides of the conflict.

Era: Imperial

Location: Atollon

The General's vod'ika was supposed to stay in their quarters while the High General was visiting. He and the visiting vode were not to know about the girl who was single handedly responsible for the past three successful missions; to the point that after hours and hours of discussions between the General, Commander Rex, and the ad'ika, they had decided that the vode would not even be involved in the next battles and missions, Lei'ika being more than capable of taking out all the enemies while keeping any potential civilians safe.

Point being, she was supposed to remain secret, not turn invisible and climb onto the hapless Roc's back while they were talking to High General Kenobi.

"Is everything okay, Trooper?" the Jedi asked, seeing the clone sway under the invisible child's weight.

"Yes, sir!" they replied, trying to keep their balance as the eleven year old tried to climb up even further onto their shoulders. Their armor shifted under the girl's hands and arms.

"Roc! There you are!" his General came marching down the hall. Roc breathed an internal sigh of relief.

"Sir!"

"Rex needs you in his office, I can take over from here," Skywalker said.

"Yes, sir! Generals," they saluted to both the Generals and turned to walk away. They knew that Le'ika could be safely delivered to their commander's office out of the way of General Kenobi. The girl had other plans, however, and they almost tripped over as she detached herself from them. They caught their balance and looked back over their shoulder, but the girl, like previously, remained invisible. Then General Skywalker stumbled forward as the invisible child ran bumped into him.

"Anakin, what's the matter?"

But Roc had no excuse to stay and watch how the scene developed.

"Leia, if you're so stubborn, you'd better show yourself, you rascal," Anakin told his sister as he caught her under his left arm.

The girl giggled and let herself become visible again.

Obi-Wan did a double take as he saw her appear.

"Who is this?"

"Leia, I picked her up from Naboo where she arrived with a refugee transport from Tatooine."

"And she is here - why?"

"She's a former slave and she doesn't have any family left, so I'm taking care of her now, although Padmé offered to find her a home to stay."

I mean we know that Kanan was his own person in a way, but also that he gets more and more mysteriously force like as time goes on. A lot of it is growth, of course. Facing past traumas, probably emulating other Jedi masters and all that.

But the Bendu commenting on that he feels like "a storm in the force". That he was able to wake another force being by being upset in its the general area is... telling?

There is talk about how being able to see yourself means a lot, and I wonder when Kanan started realizing he wasn't exactly... traditionally force sensitive I suppose?

He's very very good with telekinesis from a really early age. We see that in the comics, as well as the fact that he isn't the best saber user. Still good, but not the most naturally talented. But he was also the first in his friend group to master the classic "return fire while wearing a blindfold" technique.

We have no real comparison for how his force vision works. Idk how canon Tahl is these days, but she kinda... stayed at the temple & got issued what was essentially a seeing eye droid after being blinded.

Kanan just, stumbled a bit and then got on with it, able to easily 'see' stuff, but who knows about colors, distances, holograms, etc.

Closest comparison might be the miraluka, but they are quite literally born without eyes & have developed force vision as a natural extra sense from birth so...

A lot of the stuff he does with the force is Yoda level at least, and Yoda is 800+ years old from a super rare possibly naturally force sensitive species.

When season 3 started airing I remember seeing I people criticize how much Kanan's blindness seemed to have sharpened his senses, like hearing & smell, but I can't help to think that maybe. Maybe that wasn't because of the loss of his vision, but because he was becoming something closer to Dume? Maybe that was what unconsciously freaked Kanan out, how things were changing, both around him and inside him.

Maybe he knew his purpose for existing was coming to an end.

Ezra Bridger needed a teacher, and a saviour. Obi-Wan Kenobi needed to consider the emergency beacon as a potential way to warn Jedi, maybe not just to save Kanan's life but it certainly did. Depa Billaba needed to wake up & regain her confidence to train Kanan, so that he could train "the bridge".

The closest comparison we have to Kanan besides possibly Anakin would (at least at this moment in time) be Ahsoka. But, as far as we know, Ahsoka never was the Sister. Anakin simply transferred her remaining life force into Ahsoka. And it probably changed her on some level.

She certainly is powerful, capable of cleansing corrupted kyber crystals & being a prominent part if history, both as another thing that pushed Anakin away from the Jedi and with her work for the rebellion.

I just. I wish we knew more about these force beings. The Family & Dume are clearly connected in some way, according to the murals. But how does the Bendu fit in. Is it a personification of a planet sort of deal?

Dume & the Bendu certainly seem planet bound. Kanan comments on how much the force seems to be pulling him back to Lothal. Ezra is born on Lothal. The Jedi temple were he is knighted in & Ezra is tested is on Lothal. The entrance to TWBW is on Lothal. It's very convenient.

But there is no evidence that Kanan is from or has ever been on Lothal before he meets Hera.

We don't know were he is from, he is labled as Coruscanti on wookiepedia as that's were he grew up, and there is a throwaway line about him not knowing his parents as he went into the order at a very young age straight from his homeworld. Which seems pretty rare unless you're a straight up orphan or perhaps unwanted in some way.

But wherever he's from he was very clearly created for a purpose using essentially the soul of a force being that was deified by the local Lothalians at one point. We essentially know why, but by who? And how? Was it the force itself? Is this an 'the chosen one fucked up lets make a other that is more guided' situation? A final safeguard so that Sidious wouldn't get control over TWBW? But why weren't the lothwolves & Dume enough as they were?

...

Today is Star Wars Day! Amidst all of my assignments I found time to do some fanart for one of my favorite stories in the world. :D

Since this IS the 4th of May, I thought it would only be appropriate to draw 4 representations of the force of the itself, from both the Clone Wars AND Star Wars Rebels, The Father, the Son, The Daughter and the Bendu (who might also represents the Force as an aspect of Nature).

all characters are (c) Lucasfilm and Disney

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