Shroud of Darkness

[Tristyn]

"Shroud of Darkness" is the sixteenth episode of the second season of the animated television series Star Wars Rebels.Frank Oz and Matt Lanter guest star as Yoda and Anakin Skywalker respectively. The episode, directed by Saul Ruiz and written by Henry Gilroy, will premiere on March 2, 2016 on Disney XD.

In the episode, the rebels return to the Jedi Temple on Lothal in order to find guidance for how the Inquisitors continue to track them. They once again meet Jedi Master Yoda and encounter a number of Force visions about the future, the past, and old friends.

From Wookieepedia.



So what did you guys think of the episode?

I loved it because Ahsoka was in it. :)

 

[Brandon Rhea]

I think it was the best episode of the series.

There was a moment at the end where I legit teared up, and I never do that.

 

[Insoulent]

I definitely think it's a turning point for the series, for the Forcers of the series anyway. I personally loved the episode too, but also is setting it up some more historical setting for them. Gave some more insight on Force Visions I think? All I'm waiting for now is this week's Rebel Recon!

Spoiler: spoiled stuff

So this whole Malachor stuff is interesting. I theorized originally that the green-gaseous planet a few episodes back was Malachor but I was wrong partially. I'm excited to see them touch base on Malachor's destruction (if they're doing what I think they're doing) and maybe introduce some more history on the Jedi/Sith and whatnot, more specifically Revan(!!!!!!!!), but maybe that's just fan service. The Rebel recon from the Leia episode though revealed a bunch of the animators loved the KOTOR series, so I don't see why they wouldn't maybe introduce some Old Republic-type stuff.

I think there's something important in when the Inquisitors used the Force on the Jedi Temple, the floor underneath them began to glow red and they struggled much more than the Jedi. I'm interested in maybe it was their energy corrupting the Temple or maybe some history of the Temple that we're yet to find out? Both? Or maybe it was some form of defense activating against the presence of a dark sider? Gives away to a debate about the Inquisitor's power verse the Jedi's (Ezra's in particular).

TBH though I'm getting tired of this whole Ezra being tugged to the lure of the darkside or whatever, If he's gonna fall to the dark side, it'll hopefully be by the end of the season, or keep it moving. I honestly don't like the balance in story progression and character development in this show and it's become more apparent to me this season. Maybe it's because it's tailored to young child audience, but it's becoming painfully slow and too formulaic for me. I feel like the episodes have just become sporadic chronicles of each character within the context of being in a small rebellion, rather than actual team interactions and the Rebels actual progression as a whole. I'm sure it's the constraints in the number of episodes though, rather than Disney's ability. I've just found myself enjoying the comics more so than the show at this point which is sort of disappointing.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

The pull to the dark side should be slow, IMO. The road to the dark side is a journey, not a light switch.

In regards to Malachor, I wouldn't expect to hear anything about Revan. Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group recently said that the reason stories like SWTOR and KOTOR were branded as Legends, despite not being connected to the post-Return of the Jedi era, was because someday they may explore that era again in Star Wars storytelling. So bringing Malachor into canon is easy. Bringing with it its more detailed history, like Revan and the Mandalorians, boxes them into a corner for future Star Wars storytelling. That's why they don't (and won't) recanonize whole stories from Legends, just bring in some concepts from them.

My guess is that Malachor is where that Sith temple from the trailer is.

 

[Phil]

I got all sorts of feels from this episode, and now I can't wait to see all this about Malachor. Especially since that is apparently where Kylo Ren got his cracked lightsaber crystal from. I do like how they are taking concepts from Legends and using them, as cool as it may be, referencing Darth Revan, Darth Traya or anyone else who was apart of Malachor thousands of years ago is sort of... irrelevant.

 

[Oreus]

I loved seeing Kanaan get knighted by... The force. Kind of a cool concept. Yoda on a log giving advice is weird but I liked it still. A lot of good stuff this episode. Ahsoka dealing with Vader and what she knows was great build to their eventual encounter later.

 

[Tsunami]

I think it was even more powerful that he was knighted by a vision of someone who was once his foe, a kick up the ass that none are immune to the pull of the dark side.

I'm thinking the nod between Yoda and Ahsoka meant that she realised she would have to confront vader.

If they do Malachor right, and change the Trayus Academy into something else, it could be the nudge people need to stop talking about KOTOR, KOTOR II and SWTOR. Even though they are close to my heart, if they could make something in that era, that I enjoyed even half as much as I enjoyed those games, hell im down.

It's also going to be intresting the state of Malachor. If the battle never happened and they changed the scourge of Malachor to be a natural event, rather than the huge explosion that ended the Mandalorian Wars, it changes a lot of things.

 

[Warmonger]

What a wicked episode. If this show needs more of anything, it's the Seventh Sister. She looks awesome and her voice is cool as hell.

 

[Reya Starlyght]

I love the whole Ahsoka learning who her master became, I thought that was really cool. Especially that Ahsoka feels like it was her fault now.

 

[Kenico]

FINALLY saw the episode and HOLY MALACHORE!!! ;)

It was powerful, sent chills down my spine and I swear I was about to tear up seeing Ahsoka's pain on her face. Man that doubt, the test of the Flesh as the Trials once said. I bet you that all three under went the test lol. I bet you that Malachor of that episode...that will be Ezra's Testing the Spirit...his Facing the Mirror :p