Visions and Voices

As a fan of the show, I thought Season 1 was really good, very well made and then Season 2 I thought picked it up and Twilight of the Apprentice was such a high note and a great way to end the season.

Now, in Season 3, with the introduction of two of my all-time favourite Star Wars characters, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Maul, this season has showed such promise for greater things to come. And the episodes released thus far have been pretty good overall, giving us some satisfying episodes with better character development and setting up even bigger events. I am admiring this show's tactic, even though I haven't really been a big fan of some of the previous filler episodes that I felt were empty and didn't add anything to how the Rebels have dealt with their sever blow in Season 2, which some might say was the Empire Strikes Back of the series.

But this, Visions and Voices. As of now, I feel as if I am on board with this new Star Wars canon, the films, the Clone Wars/Rebels series, I believe no matter what I will still go to watch them and see how it all turns out in the end.

But with the addition of Maul, who became such a fan favourite with The Phantom Menace, he was just not given proper justice. And now, they have brought him back in The Clone Wars, where he had such an amazing story arc, and then bringing him back for Rebels was such a smart move. Even for those who haven't seen TCW and have watched Rebels, they will find Maul to be a very mysterious and well- motivated character with a lot of depth and emotion surrounding him.

"We can walk this path together, as friends. As brothers..." That line was so gut-punching, even for such a sadistic character, you just can't help but feel for the guy.

As for this episode, it was really well made, it had a surprisingly clever balance between darker themes, great homage to TCW and deeper development between Ezra and Maul's relationship. Just what I wanted from this episode and what I hope for in future episodes.

Originally, I was going to give this a 9 or an 8, but after consideration, I think that this episode fully satisfied me and I just felt like posting my thoughts about it. 10/10

I was wondering if they were going to feature Maul again before his inevitable meeting with an old friend. Luckily, we got this episode which is one of the best they've had in some time. It was suitably dark for a Disney XD series and it had some great easter eggs and callbacks to the old animation. It is clear that Dave Filoni have certain things that he would like to use in this episode, and with the reintroduction of a certain artifact, it seems like we could get a lot more of the Mandalorians coming up, which I wouldn't be opposed. I liked the action sequences, and I liked that they continued the trend of these witches using a special kind of magic, even though I still don't understand how they were able to possess other beings, but then again, it is a fantasy sci-fi epic, so maybe not ask that many questions. It was a great episode that gave me a little more of Maul, and even though I don't think we're going to see him again that soon, I do hope that he will show up again at some point, and I hope that the second half of this season picks up a little quicker than the first half did.

Ezra has visions of Maul and hears his voice causing him great disturbance. Kanan seeks advice from the Bendu and then Maul makes an appearance asking Ezra to connect with him again on Dathomir to get the information they both want.

There are strange magical, mystical elements linking back to the Nightsisters episodes from Clone Wars and there is strong development of the plot arc involving Maul and Ezra's quest to find how to defeat the Sith.

The plot development is the best thing about the episode but there is also emotional complexity as Ezra is intertwined with Maul's plans.

Maul is such a great character, so brilliantly voiced by Sam Witwer. His presence adds a lot to the episode and there is some lightsaber action too.

Great to see the Bendu again and hear the wonderful Tom Baker's voice.

Plus we hear mention of Obi Wan Kenobi!

An important episode in the overall plot.

My rating: 9/10.