When we meet her in Spark of Rebellion, Hera is not "space mom". Hera is The Cause. She's been fighting the Empire for the last six years. Before that, she'd run away from an unhappy home, a home divided by grief and the competing desire to fight the Empire at home vs abroad. And even before that, as a child, Hera was involved in her parents' war.
Thrawn was right. War was all Hera knew.
So I don't mind thinking that she looks at Chopper, Kanan, Zeb, Sabine, and Ezra initially as assets. That's just how Hera thinks. That’s her life.
And because of that, at the beginning of the story, Hera is distancing herself from people (even from Kanan), just like the rest of the Ghost crew is doing. But as they live and work together, as their relationships develop, as they become that family that we like to think of them as, that's when Hera grows into her more maternal skillset.
So that, instead of just a recruiter, Hera becomes a leader. A captain. A general. She teaches and nurtures. She manages and organizes. She sees and inspires the best in people, and she helps them become more and better than they thought they could be.
And then, when she has learned how to be "space mom", she becomes a mom, too.
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Rebels really gave us different and believable ways of grieving for each character. Hera hanging out with her oldest friend Chopper, finding some way to blame herself for Kanan's death and then honouring his memory in her family's Kalikori. Ezra wandering off alone, lost and directionless without his master, but slowly coming to accept Kanan's loss and letting him go, to learn from his sacrifice. Sabine and Zeb's immediate instinct to go blow shit up and make the Empire pay, but staying each other's hand when things get too violent, because Kanan taught them that how they fight is just as important as why. And all of them are able to come together after they've processed his death in their own ways, to hold each other in their grief and continue working as a team in his memory.
ok but what i DO like about the time travel thing now that i’ve had some time to ponder it, is that it’s impossible after this episode. The lothal temple destroyed itself — the mortis trio were the keys to that force nexus, and now that they’ve hidden themselves, it shouldn’t be possible now and I doubt anyone has the knkowledge to ever reconstruct the temple now (similar to the time turners being destroyed in OOTP, but better).
Also, i think the whole concept of being able to reach through time and space through this gateway fits in well with what we did know about mortis. In TCW, Mortis was definitely a place that was “out of time” so to speak — they used a long outdated jedi code, it messed with outside communications, Ahsoka and Anakin saw vivid visions forewarning the future, and in the end absolutely no time passed, and you’re left wondering if it was just a vision or if Mortis and the Force associated with it were able to warp time to that degree. With that in mind, it doesn’t seem that outlandish that a nexus of the Force, guarded/maintained by the mortis trio, would be able to allow physical access to gateways into time. Plus Lothal was already established as a strong Force nexus, what with Yoda astral projecting himself there to speak with Ezra, Kanan interacting with the Grand inquisitor of the past, and Ahsoka seeing the truth of Anakin’s fate. It really brings home the idea of how the Force surrounds and binds everything together in a meaningful and tangible way.
An even greater triumph is that it wasn’t just for ~lore~ and ~fan service~, but also for Ezra to acutely confront the act of letting go of Kanan. It succeeds not just for the coolness factor (and gdi it was cool as hell), but for the emotional impact that it facilitates for the characters.
And just the design of the dimension was SO COOL and it immediately reminded me of the scene where Anakin forces the Son and Daughter to submit and the sky starts turning dark with all the symbols and stars. So there was this really neat visual connection that wasn’t super overt, yet easily noticeable.
Technically, Kanan recruited Ezra. If anyone asked Ezra who recruited him, he’d say that Kanan did, right?
Except that we know - and Maul confirms for us later - that it was Hera’s idea to recruit him.
For all of Spark of Rebellion, Hera is pushing and prodding Kanan to accept that this kid is worth it, that he is just like Kanan was, and that Ezra needs them (and that Kanan needs Ezra, too).
Kanan is very reluctant. He’s resistant to the point that he even considers leaving Ezra in the hands of the Empire, and it’s Hera putting him in the tie-breaker situation that finally gets him to flip.
Well. For that rescue, at least.
Up until the last minute, it's Hera who is campaigning for Ezra. She points out to Kanan that what they suspected was confirmed: Ezra is Force sensitive. Therefore, they (he) have a responsibility to protect this kid (especially because Ezra is an orphan, something that Hera learns on her own).
They nearly let Ezra go. It’s almost as if they had agreed that if (and only if) Ezra was Force sensitive, that they would take him on.
That is when Kanan makes the offer to Ezra.
So I think that it follows that from the beginning, growing the crew was always Hera's idea. Hera is the one who saved and restored Chopper. Once Hera learned that Kanan was a Jedi (and he proved himself to her in a lot of ways), she was willing to take him on, too. In A New Dawn, Hera even mentions that she's experienced in recruiting missions. Bringing people into the Rebellion and inspiring them into action is one of her specialties.
Hera is the one with the heart for the strays.
Recruiting Zeb and Sabine was probably her idea, even if it was Kanan who made the offer to them.
Hera being the one to choose the crew members while Kanan makes the offers to them makes sense with the way that they assigned their call numbers. The Ghost is Hera's ship, Kanan joined her crew, Hera is the one with the secret Rebellion contacts and missions that even Kanan doesn't know about, Hera is the one pushing for them to grow bigger beyond their little operation and to join the Rebellion at large eventually; but outwardly, she is always presenting Kanan as the leader. To everyone else, even to the rest of the Spectres up until the end of Season 1 (when Hera reveals to them that Kanan doesn't know anything that he could potentially reveal to the Empire), Kanan is Spectre 1.
This is not to say that Kanan just blindly follows Hera's orders. Their partnership is inspiring because it is a true partnership. They talk things out, they disagree, they listen to one another, they compromise.
But up until Kanan is complicit in getting Hera promoted to Phoenix Leader, an officially and publicly recognized leadership position, it's Kanan who is the face of the Spectres while Hera is running things in the background.
You can attribute the way this relationship works to Hera’s maternal or spousal or military leader qualities, her need to have a male representative to navigate the criminal underworld as a young, female Twi’lek, her insecurities about being a leader arising out of her relationship with her father, her necessity to hide her official rebellion activities, and/or her sensitivity to the need for her crew to engage in certain types of relationships.
But if Kanan is credited with recruiting anyone, then I’m confident that he was just the messenger. The Jedi negotiator.
At its core, the crew and mission of the Ghost was always Hera’s.
I also think that it would be a little ooc for Kanan to be bringing people onto the crew, especially early on, because he was still in hiding until Ezra came along. New people were a big risk. Plus, back then, he had Hera (mostly) all to himself, so… 😂 😉
I've been thinking about fairy tales, specifically the elements of Otherness and Death of/Separation from the Family.
Star Wars is a fairy tale, and Rebels begins when the Otherness of our co-protags has resulted in the loss of their families. Ezra's family spoke out against the Empire (at least in part because of his Otherness - Force sensitivity), and they were arrested for it. Sabine traded her traditional Mandalorian family for the Imperial Academy (making her Other in her family), which resulted in her clan not being able to bring her back home when she needed them to.
Usually, Death of/Separation from the Family catapults a character into adulthood and independence (like Luke and Leia at the beginning of A New Hope), but this was only temporary for Ezra and Sabine.
Rebels said that they weren't quite ready yet.
So Rebels interrupted this process to give Ezra and Sabine - in their First Story - a chance to finish out their childhood first.
Ezra and Sabine found, in the Ghost crew, a new family where their Otherness was shared (making them no longer Other), and this new family prepared them for adulthood when their own families couldn't or wouldn't.
But because Rebels delayed Ezra and Sabine's transition into adulthood, and because Rebels is Star Wars and Star Wars is a fairy tale, and because all children grow up, there must be a second story for both Ezra and Sabine. They cannot stay at home with their family - found or otherwise - forever.
And what I love about Rebels is that it set this up so beautifully.
We saw it coming in season three when Ezra and Sabine started breaking off from the Spectre group to go off on their own together. In season four, they were often coupled up alongside Kanan and Hera, mirroring them. By the end of Rebels, it was very clear that Ezra and Sabine had become the Kanan and Hera of a new story when both mentors passed on their leadership positions to their younger counterparts before they all went off in different directions.
This is where a new Death of/Separation from Family begins, so the the purgilling and afterward is the beginning of the Second Story, the journey into adulthood.
It's interesting to note that the First Story differs from the Second in that Ezra and Sabine involuntarily lost their parents the first time around. It was something that happened to them.
For the Second Story, the Separation from the Family is something that they both choose.
Ezra leaves them all behind. Sabine stays when everyone else leaves.
By the end of Rebels, Ezra and Sabine (now around the same age as Luke and Leia), are ready to take their next steps, leaving their family to journey into adulthood, and it's their Otherness (Jedi Ezra and Unconventional Mandalorian Sabine) that shapes the next part of the story.
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The One About Ezra & Sabine’s Fairy Tale, Part IV (End)
Part I || Part II || Part III
The Second Mission for both Ezra and Sabine is a time of personal growth while simultaneously moving back towards each other. Finding Ezra is Sabine's Hero Journey, and it should be transformative for her; likewise, there should be a transformative Hero Journey for Ezra that concludes his dealings with the purrgil.
Towards the end of it, Sabine and Ezra reunite in dramatic fashion, combining their complementary strengths to defeat the Big Bad in a way that neither of them could have done alone. Then they return to Lothal victorious.
The Otherness created for them in Rebels is resolved in their reunion. The Journey into Adulthood is complete. If all goes according to plan, they get to live Happily Ever After.
Together.
Married.
"It was a simple story about a boy who was lost and a girl who was broken."
Star Wars Rebels is about Sabine and Ezra, and so should its continuation be. Two kids without a Home and Family found new ones, and it was there that they found each other to make a Home and Family with for the rest of their days.
As the new Kanan and Hera, Sabine and Ezra should get to live out their days after the war the way that their mentors didn’t get to because their relationship existed before the war. There should be a payoff for everyone’s sacrifices.
The First Story needs its completion in the Second.
At the end of Rebels, the Epilogue reflects on what both Sabine and Ezra gave up in order to see the rewards it wrought - for everyone else. Then Sabine leaves, sacrificing Home once again, in order to get Ezra and bring him Home. To her Home. With her. It’s very much positioned as a moment of hope that anticipates a share in the peace time rewards for them, too. Together.
In the end, Happily Ever After means that the Good Guys win and the heroes return home. It means that there is hope for the future, that life will go on, that we will have people - perhaps even that one perfect person - to share our lives with, and that new life, new stories will arise long after we're gone.
The simplest fulfillment of this Happily Ever After - Home and Family as marriage and babies and community - isn't the natural outcome for every character in every story.
One more thing about the idea that "Ezra is oblivious to Kanera":
It doesn't make any sense.
Kanan wasn't just Ezra's father-figure, big brother, friend...he was his Jedi Master.
It’s a major part of his job description to talk about their feelings, especially strong feelings like love.
During the Clone War, the topic arose between Anakin and Obi Wan because they happened to meet up with Satine. But Kanan and Hera and Ezra were aboard the Ghost together every day. I can't imagine Ezra not asking the same questions that Anakin did. I can't imagine Kanan not answering or not answering fully or truthfully the way that Obi Wan did.
Even though we didn't see Kanan and Ezra have a heart-to-heart like this onscreen, it's hard to believe that not once, in 5 years together, did they ever discuss Kanan's feelings for Hera, especially since they were so obvious.
Like Obi Wan and Anakin, Kanan raises Ezra in a way, but it’s different because they're outside of the Order. From 14-19, Ezra would naturally ask questions about love and dating and possibly getting married some day, and it would make sense, given how carefully he watched Kanan and Hera’s interactions, if he related those questions back to Kanera. And even if those things seem far away, on the other side of the war, they must talk about them because Ezra himself said that Kanan didn't just teach him how to be a Jedi - he taught him about life.
Ezra: I don’t mean about the Force. I mean about life, about being a good person. That’s what you’ve taught me.
And like Obi Wan, when Ezra asks questions about life and love, Kanan must frame that within the perspective of what it means for a Jedi. He's going to tell Ezra what the Order practiced. He's going to explain why he and Hera are the way they are. He's going to train Ezra to acknowledge, manage, and accept his feelings, whatever they may be. As Kanan himself learns and grows by teaching these things to Ezra, he will try to be the best example of how to do this that he can be.
And he was.
Kanan: I need you to do something for me.
Ezra: Anything.
Kanan: Take the lead on getting Hera back.
Ezra: Shouldn’t you be the one to do that?
Kanan: I would, but I can’t think clearly because of the way that I feel about her. I might make a mistake. One that could cost us.
Ezra: We can do this together.
Kanan: No. I’ll be with you, but this has to be your plan. You lead.
Ezra: If that’s what you want.
Kanan: It’s what we need if we’re going to save Hera…and everyone else.
So I don't think Ezra was oblivious to Kanera. Especially to Kanan's feelings for Hera. Kanan wouldn't have been a good Master, father, or friend if he had been.
The One About Ezra & Sabine's Fairy Tale - Part III
Part I || Part II
The thing about Otherness in fairy tales (or at least in the retellings I've been reading) is that Otherness has a dual role of 1) separating a character from their family; and 2) of being the Thing that draws that character to the exact right person for them outside of their family.
In Rebels, the Thing that originally makes Sabine and Ezra Other in their own families (Ezra's Force sensitivity and Sabine's Imperial/run away experience) finds its home in their mentors on the crew (Kanan and Hera) and makes them no longer Other.
But because this is only ever a temporary situation, because the First Story is a completion of their childhood and that there must be a Second Story and a journey into adulthood, a new Otherness is created for Ezra and Sabine when they meet:
They're the only children on the crew, and they have both been made (basically) orphans by the Empire.
This is initially what brings them together and unites them in a way that is different from any of their other relationships on the Ghost.
It establishes that they are separate from their (found) family and makes them the right person for one another.
Their First Story is concerned with their relationships with the mentors and the Family, but, over time, a closeness gradually develops between them as they grow up and away from the group. This implies that, as they move towards adulthood, when they prepare to leave and separate themselves from the Home and Family of the Ghost, their Otherness will be only be satisfied in one another.
They either are or they become the one and only perfect person for each other outside of their Family.
Someone to build their own Home and Family with.
This is the opposite direction from a sibling relationship because siblings generally grow apart as they age out of the family, not closer together. Siblings are a part of the family that is left behind at a childhood home, not the family to make a home with in adulthood.
Nowhere else in Rebels is it more obvious that Sabine and Ezra's Otherness is becoming shared just between them (dividing them from the crew) and is also making each other their (eventual) new Home and Family, than this moment right here.
Outfit as both Jedi and Mandalorian, Sabine and Ezra are also clad in the colorful way that only they have, making them an exception to the muted neutrals of the Jedi and the dull hues of the Mandalorians.
They have merged in a manner that is more indicative of spouses, not siblings.
After this, Sabine chooses (this time) to leave her childhood home and family and return to the Ghost crew where she and Ezra, more and more, are shown working only with one another, culminating in the final arc of the show.
This is why the Second Story is bisected into two parts: Sabine has only fulfilled half of the mission. Lothal has become Home, but it’s still missing her Family.
In the Epilogue, Sabine makes it clear that Zeb (along with Kallus) has found Home and Family on Lira San. Hera has found Home and Family with Jacen.
But Sabine? Ezra?
Not yet.
"Ezra's out there somewhere, and it's time to bring him home."
