All language subtitles for Star.Wars.Rebels.S03E15.720p.BluRay.x265-HETeam

Encoded by Hunter
Crazy4TV.com

In the beginning of this episode,
in the Writers' Room

where we come up with all the ideas,

I knew that we wanted to do
a training episode.

We wanted to train Sabine
to use the Darksaber.

And just finding a way in on that
was a bit of a challenge.

A lot of people didn't think
that we could suspend the story

just on one plot about Sabine training.

You wanted to speak with me?

But I and a couple other people did.

So, we decided
this is all about sword training.

To make it interesting in the beginning,
and remember

a lot of people won 't know
what the Darksaber is.

I added really late
in the stages of the story

this history of the Darksaber,

which explains that it was created
by a Mandalorian,

who was the first Mandalorian
that was ever inducted

into the Jedi Order as a child.

I created that history and a lot of it

while I was actually visiting
the set of Episode VIII.

I had to storyboard this sequence here

where you see these shadows

that would later be animated
by Justin Ridge.

But he and I combined to do this

as we have many things
over the years.

But it was an exciting thing
'cause there I was over in London,

seeing what Rian was up to,

and that was really inspirational for me.

Again, challenging us to tell
a great story and to push things

and do things that we hadn't.

So I thought this shadow play
would be a fun way to do it.

Something that inspired me
for that shadow play would probably be

Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings.

He had a great opening sequence

where he explained the whole
War of the Ring using shadows.

So it was something that I told
Joel Aron, the CG Supervisor, about

just as a reference point of,
"Here's one way this has been done,"

and had a wonderful texture
and look to it.

This next shot here
was really important

because I wanted to get across
this idea of Sabine's current family,

and then the birds below the painting
represent the Wrens,

her actual family.

It's always fun to see artwork
in Sabine's room.

So in this case,

I had that special painting
done by Kilian to make a story point

just out of that visual.

And that there is one of my
favorite things, when Chopper purrs.

Chopper, I've always said,

at heart is actually
a really nice character,

a good character,
but he's often gruff on the outside.

But I thought the animation really
sells that, the kindness in that moment.

This is like
a family intervention moment.

These scenes can be really difficult

'cause they have to give you
a lot of information.

But one thing I really wanted to do
in this episode

was explain and express
a lot of emotion.

I was very careful about how
Hera would react in this scene.

You see a lot of this scene
is not Hera talking at all,

but Hera observing.
Watch her observe.

She doesn't like
what Ezra is saying there.

She's waiting, she's picking her spot
because Hera's the most aware

of what Sabine's past is

and what's causing Sabine
to react the way she is.

It's also very like all these characters,
all these men in the foreground,

to be explaining this situation to Sabine

and why she should be
doing these things.

And, frankly, not really listening
to what Sabine has to say,

or what she's actually feeling.

And I felt like Hera needs to be
the counterpoint to that,

this almost inquisition.

They want her to do something,

but they're not really thinking
about what she needs emotionally.

And Hera is now supporting that,

but she's also cutting through
to the bare facts of the thing.

She empathizes with Sabine,

but she also knows that this needs
to happen for a greater good.

She's trying to appeal to Sabine
on that level.

For me, I always thought
that Sabine would assume

that Hera would be supportive of her
and her reluctance to do this.

So she's a bit surprised

when Hera actually supports
the training of her with the saber.

But it's 'cause Hera's playing
a bigger game here.

She understands the bigger picture.

Kanan holding onto the saber there
with Sabine,

he's not just impressing upon her
the importance of the training,

but also it's reflective
of his actual reluctance to let her train,

or to train her the way
that she probably needs to be trained,

which will become a bigger theme
as we go forward in the episode.

And she actually tries to learn.

So this is kind of a classic Star Wars
stance with a lightsaber,

but it's not turned on yet,
so it's a little twist.

You need moments like this
with these little skittering guys

just to give the full atmosphere
of Star Wars.

Star Wars needs to feel
like a big world,

always a vast galaxy
outside of the little main plot here.

And since there wasn't going to be
a big B plot,

I tried to let some of the things
in the environment,

like the spiders and the Bendu
play a little bit of a vastness role

to give depth to the galaxy.

This scene is all about
your expectation

of going to be trained
with this lightsaber,

but there's a lot of work
that surrounds it.

So them having to set up camp,

all the not-fun things that go on when
you're wanting to do this adventure

or do what you would like to do.

But discipline comes
in many forms and training,

and that's what Sabine
has to learn here.

They're just very old motifs,
to be honest,

when you're dealing
with this type of story,

a master and apprentice in training.

Probably you wouldn't think of it,
these little wooden sabers

are one of the more difficult props
to make because, ultimately,

they don't look like much of anything.

You want to accept them as wood
without being too designed.

Kanan wouldn't have had a lot of time
to make these things,

but they have to be effective as a prop.

So I always find
those designs and models

can be actually the more difficult
kind of props to make.

But in the end
you don't really think about them,

which I think means they're effective
'cause you just accept what they are.

But every little thing
needs to be designed.

Here you see Kanan pretty hard on her
right at the start

because Sabine is cocky.

She is a good fighter,
so we have to get that out of the way,

that she is a capable warrior,
but she hasn't fought like this,

with a weapon like this.

And in a lot of ways, Kanan thinks
that the knowledge of the weapon

and the danger of it,
he's being overprotective of her.

He doesn't realize that.

He just thinks
he's being a diligent master

when he's actually being
a more limited master

than he was
even when he taught Ezra.

So, this type of thing here,

with the posing you see going on
with the lightsabers and the stance,

that's something
that we would research.

Steward Lee, the episodic director
on this episode,

he and I have worked together now
for pretty much 12 years on Star Wars.

And I know he's very adept
at sword play and martial arts,

so it was important
to have him do this episode

to make sure that the sword fighting
would be locked down

and believable and
based on some reality.

And he did a wonderful job with that.

This Hera-Kanan scene
is really the first of several scenes

where the mother figure checks in
on how the father figure is doing.

And she is, again, a bit more wise

because she's looking at
the bigger picture

as to what Sabine actually needs,

and how Kanan might be limiting her
based on his own fears.

Fear of, you know,
allegedly that she could hurt herself.

But I think there's also with Kanan
a fear that he's not as good a master.

He might not be able
to teach her well enough.

He could barely, in some ways,
teach Ezra in the long run,

and now teaching Sabine.

The truth is, it's probably
more difficult for Kanan to do

than it is for her to learn
because she's such a skilled warrior.

In this scene here again,

there was a big challenge
with Ezra in the episode.

The easy thing to do would be

to have his kind of mocking
and barbing of Sabine

become something

that's way overplayed
in making fun of her.

And when Taylor,
we were performing this,

he did several versions,

and I think between me
and Tiya and the cast,

we could sit there and kind of say,

"Okay, he's trying to tease her,
but he's not trying to belittle her."

He doesn't want to be mean.

For Ezra, it's hard to understand,
where it's been difficult for him to learn

to lightsaber fight and use the Force,

how can Sabine learn this

without even having the ability
to use the Force?

But you don't want it ever to come
across that Ezra is saying these things

and mocking her
basically because she's a girl.

"You can't do this
because you're a girl."

That's not relevant here whatsoever.

She's easily as good a warrior as he is.

This is just a warrior
that needs to use a different tool.

And that type of learning
can apply to any scenario,

whether it's about
fighting with weapons

or learning some other skill.

Here we have Uncle Rau.

He's playing the role
of kind of a mentor

more from her side of things,
a Mandalorian side,

and kind of how they would deal
with the situation,

which is to upgrade their technology.

Mandalorians are prideful,
brilliant warriors in their own right.

They're also technologically savvy
and advanced.

This is how they've fought the Jedi.

So again, this kind of plays
into the opening with Tarre Vizsla

in the images of them fighting.

So you're seeing here
almost a small reenactment

of a Jedi-Mandalorian war

and how a Mandalorian
would get the upper hand

surprising Jedi with technology
and then cutting them down,

finishing them off.

So they'd get this advantage,

but while it's kind of fun for Sabine

and it lets her have
a little bit of bragging rights,

it also undermines her in Kanan's eyes.

Because having that kind of advantage
isn't going to work,

he knows in the long run.

We actually see Kanan
get a little mad here.

This is a bold move.

As a kid you were all
often challenging your parents,

sometimes you know it,
sometimes you don't.

But challenging Kanan
was important here.

She oversteps,
and Kanan gets rather aggressive,

more aggressive
than we've seen probably,

especially towards Sabine.

But he's reacting emotionally

because he's actually inward
about himself and his own concerns,

and now he feels like
she's not taking it seriously.

It's just excuses, excuses
for not wanting to do things.

But now she gets very angry
and compliments Ezra.

I thought it'd be important
in this moment

she had some clarity and she said
something nice about Ezra,

that he must be very good
with the Force

because he's learned
to be skilled from Kanan,

which is proving very difficult.

I love the environments
the team comes up with.

I think that you look here,

the environments very believable
and integrated, the ground plain,

and everybody just does
a wonderful job when rendering this.

This moment, I mean, every moment,
it just adds up

and becomes important
in this episode for me.

But these quiet moments are
equally as important

as the moments when they're fighting.

This is the look inside Sabine's mind,
what's really bothering her.

When you're mad at your parents,

sometimes you can talk to your siblings
and you have a lot of clarity.

So this is that moment

where Ezra really gets behind the wall
for the first time with Sabine

and learns about what's truly
troubling her, what's blocking her.

This moment was a big deal for me.

I love moments
where there is no dialogue,

where the characters
aren't saying anything,

but they're expressing things
through the lack of dialogue.

You get inside their mind.

In a 21-minute episode,
there really is never enough time

to have the characters think
and come to conclusions

and thought processes.

So that moment of stillness,
of quiet, I think,

helps land this wonderful acting

that Tiya and Taylor are doing
in this scene.

And I just threw a little Bendu in here,
I think, as just the observer again.

People wanted to read a lot into this.

But I think Bendu's always curious
of his surroundings

and why would the Jedi teach
this non-Jedi.

Here again, in this series of scenes
with Hera and Kanan,

this was a scene when I,
very early on in writing the episode,

this was one of the first scenes
I actually wrote.

I actually took this bit of dialogue,

and took it to Tiya and Vanessa,
and I said,

"I want you guys to read this scene
and see if this makes sense."

It was very important to me to get input

from the women working on this show.

I get a lot of input
from my wife constantly

on female characters
and their portrayal.

And how to attack these portrayals

and express the portrayal
of these characters

and to have some authenticity.

The only way I've been able, I think,
to achieve that

is by sharing information
and then listening and paying attention

to their reactions
and their thoughts on this.

If this becomes more believable,

then it's in large part

due to their efforts
and inclusion in this process.

Vanessa and Tiya
very much liked this scene.

Vanessa said it really related
to her, some of the ways she feels.

And I think that you hear her
in the line when she says,

"I know you don't,
but it's not about you."

"This isn't about you."

It's a key moment for me,
for Kanan to try to understand,

and is he going to listen to her?

Is he going to pay attention
to what Hera's saying

or is he going to kind of go along
as he always had,

as this Jedi that has these skills?

He's overcome a lot of things himself,

but is he applying
his experience to Sabine?

Is he allowing for her own experience
and her own thoughts?

How can he become
a better teacher for her?

What does she need
to achieve this rather difficult task

of learning to use a lightsaber?

The stage is set by Act 3.

I think it was very important
that both characters admit

some level of error here,

that it's not really all on one person
ever in this situation,

but both people need
to take a step back,

and kind of apologize and say,
"Let's start over."

We don't really get enough of that
these days from people

when emotions run high.

So any chance you can set an example

and say, "Let's do this the right way,
let's start over,"

I think is a good thing in a story.

So here the training
is basically starting over again

and starting properly
and with more formality.

This is going to be
with the actual saber.

I think everybody's curious,
Fenn Rau, Ezra, as to how this will go.

These ideas here
where the blade has energy,

and it seems to have
a lot of weight to it,

are ideas that I used to talk about
with George when we would talk about

original lightsaber combat
as he envisioned it in A New Hope.

The electricity of the blades
and the energy

really drew the sabers together.

There was kind of a heaviness
to pull them apart.

Mark Hamill actually talks about
in some interviews

how they would use the lightsabers
in the original Star Wars.

So I tried to keep that alive here
and express it.

I thought that while the Jedi
we've seen since the prequels

were very skilled
with lightsaber fighting

and could move them
all around acrobatically,

for Sabine, she would be expressing
more of that experience Luke had,

which is, this is a
completely new thing.

And again, in the training
with the lightsaber fighting here

is paralleling the emotional
state of the characters.

It's all very important.

And Steward Lee
did a great job with his team

of bringing this action to life
when we set the stage.

Brilliant choreography by him.

But it's all about the attitude, the move,

the speed of the lightsaber swinging,

the speed of the training is matching

what's going on
in the characters' minds.

I prepped Tiya for this well in advance.

I started talking to her

a couple months earlier
about this episode,

about the emotional range
that would be required of her

to sell this, to make it believable,
to get inside the character's mind.

We wanted to establish
a bit of the backstory for Sabine

and why she would be so emotional,

and what was her comfort level.

I think as a director
you have to be responsible

for your actors and how they're going
to be handling these emotions.

She was so professional and amazing,
take after take as we did this.

And we didn't have to do many,
to be honest. She was really on.

She was well prepared for the moment.

This scene and most of this episode
was recorded

with just her and Freddie
for these moments

so they could both really dive in

and have a space where they could
really get at each other

and experience these emotions.

So, again, now she's using the tools
in a smart way,

not as an aggressive way,
but as a way to help herself out.

You gotta get burned a little bit,
this isn't a perfect thing.

I think little setbacks and injuries
are a part of the learning process.

That's what that little damage there.
It also frustrates her.

And now, Kanan,
look how much better he is.

Of course, he would be better, right?

He doesn't need his lightsaber on.

But what Kanan's doing here,
unfortunately for him dangerously,

is he's underestimating
the emotional power behind Sabine,

what's actually driving her,
how hurt she is.

There's a real risk here for him
that if she unleashes this anger,

that it's powerful.
That's true of anything.

It's not just true for Jedi and Sith.

You'd think like,
"If you tap into your anger..."

The warning there in Stat Wars is that
that anger,

tapping into anger
is dangerous for anybody to do.

And here you see Sabine
embracing her anger,

and look how powerful she becomes.

Kanan's backing off,
he doesn't want to hurt her,

but now he's at a clear disadvantage

as she just gets absorbed
into this emotional state

and lets her anger and her sorrow
empower her.

Does she even see Kanan,
or does she see Kanan in front of her

as embodying all that hurt
and all that pain?

And these are the things
that you have to go through

directing it, writing it, acting it.

What is this emotional state?
What's driving her?

It fuels the renders,

Joel can make
these crackling electricity,

it fuels the animation
for the expressions

and this breakdown moment.

There's a real chance,
she could have killed Kanan here.

What could he do?
He's not going to hurt her.

They've brought this upon themselves.

But she can't do it
because the emotions peak.

Your anger is often followed
by tremendous regret and remorse.

People that lash out,
you come to your sanity.

That's the terrible thing about it,
is that then you see clearly

everything that's gone on
and everything you've done wrong,

and you've made things worse.

That's why you can't give in
to these emotions.

But what you need is support
in these high emotional times.

Young people get confused
when they're emotional

and they express themselves.
They're vulnerable.

And so, what she needs
more than anything

is support of the people around her,

of this family.

She lost a family.
It's hard for her to accept a new family.

And here, in a very symbolic gesture,

I wanted this kind of archetype
of the warrior, Fenn Rau,

to kneel before her, her brother.

They're showing respect.

They're showing respect for her
for this expression of emotions,

for this empowering.
It becomes an empowering moment.

It's not a weakness
to feel remorse, to cry.

And in the end, she's a lot stronger

for having the support
of these people around her.

And that's what this story
is ultimately about.