So, Dave Filoni back for "Heroes of Mandalore: Part 2."
Here we go.
So here we are back on Mandalore.
It's interesting, I know a lot of Mandalorians oddly.
I mean, I guess it's not odd. It makes sense I would know Mandalorians.
But they're all great people.
They throw fantastic dinners.
I don't know if you'd realize that, but they do.
Um, they are very Mandalorian, I'll say that.
I have been to dinner with Mandalorians at Star Wars Celebrations.
And they just really... It's kind of a nice jolt to be reminded of how important the characters are to people, how much fans invest in these characters, like Sabine, like Bo-Katan, uh, and it really allows me to refocus...
you know, the importance of getting these episodes right.
I mean, of course we're going to work hard, but you know, to talk to the fans and to interact with them really brings it to a whole other level.
And then I think that any of my team and I that have been to an event with the fans, we come back and say, okay, yeah, yeah, let's really nail this, let's get this right, let's find the problems that we have and make things better.
I mean, you just need that little extra bit sometimes to go a little bit farther.
And it's often what the characters need, too.
They need to push themselves a little bit farther to find victory.
So, here we start with a battle. It's always good to start in on action.
So, here we start with a battle. It's always good to start in on action.
We tried to cut this in a tricky way so you...
Originally there were just so few soldiers attacking, um, so by adding a bunch of closeups and quick sh*ts of the bad guys, you feel like there are maybe more bad guys than just four, which would be not enough reinforcements.
The simple rule always is that when you have your heroes, you want to try to outnumber your heroes three to one with bad guys.
So, the more heroes you have, like in this scene we have quite a number of heavy hitters.
We need to add more and more bad guys and up the stakes somehow.
The...
It's kind of like if you went into a party in Dungeons and Dragons, and you had like all epic characters, well, it's going to take a lot to knock those characters out.
So, we have to throw some TIE fighters in here because that will be trouble for our heroes.
And then they get a gauntlet, so it kind of is a power play back and forth.
But also now, this would allow us to change the situation, conditions of the battle, and now do something else.
Getting them airborne, which would be Mandalorians attacking a TIE fighter... which is something I really didn't think that I would ever see growing up.
So, that became a very cool thing.
But, you know, we had Boba Fett as a kid, and now we have these rocket packs with missiles, so that seems like a pretty good formula to knock out a TIE fighter.
So, here goes Bo-Katan into the breach to go do that very thing, which is fun.
I mean, you gotta keep coming up with interesting situations and see how it plays out.
Ezra has struggles with his jetpack, and he might be good with the Force, doesn't mean he'd be good with a jetpack.
Everything takes a little skill and training.
You know, it's funny, it goes back to Season 1, but we put that door to the TIE fighter on top just like the Kenner toy.
I'm not sure that's necessarily in truth where it should be, but I think that the thing in the back isn't such a window as much as it was supposed to be a doorway.
But we put it on top.
It's terrible wind resistance when you open that top, but we just sh*t around it...
And didn't really let it get in the way of telling our story.
But here's a nice moment for Ezra.
Boy, it's always fun to see TIE fighters.
They're such a great design.
You know, it's really a quite a thing to get to work with these wonderful designs like the Imperial Star Destroyer and the TIE fighter.
You know, Star Wars is just filled with such a rich history of wonderful cinematic design.
So, getting to be a part of using it is always a great privilege.
Here we see the w*apon Sabine invented at work.
Pretty gruesome stuff, but again, you need to set up your villain, also introduce Thrawn into the fourth season.
And show that he's always a cut above the other villains, more intelligent than any of the other villains that we've had on the show because really Tiber's trying to play a game here with Thrawn and make it seem like he's more powerful than he is, but Thrawn's going to see through that pretty quickly.
It's been an interesting kind of thing to do Star Wars Clone Wars, and then go into Star Wars Rebels because the two series really play back to back with one another, and we move from Jedi cruisers into Imperial Star Destroyers.
I've had different fleet admirals over the years, but now to have Thrawn, always a big thrill to have a character like that, but when I see these sets and the similarity between them, and you really start to understand kind of the details to George's mythology and the Imperial take over, and how... you know, the once grand Republic became this evil Empire and all the machines and weapons that they had built to preserve good and to protect their democracy, in the end, really enslaved a galaxy and became, you know, the control through fear, weapons of power for people like Thrawn, people like Tiber Saxon, you know.
Those decisions that they made during the final days of the Republic were all made out of fear, fear that they needed stronger defenses, fear that the Separatists would take over.
And so they really, as Padmé says, they handed over the democracy to thunderous applause, to an Emperor, somebody that said he would give them peace and security, but he really gave them nothing but terror and enslavement.
And it's affected everyone you see.
It trickles down to the personal disagreements and arguments, you know.
Bo-Katan is a person that will hold you accountable.
She is not happy with Sabine for developing that w*apon, but I think it's an important moment for Sabine not to fight back and defend herself through that kind of violent action, but to, you know, explain herself and to take responsibility for this w*apon.
And, you know, for Ezra not to understand it, for him not to understand what's at stake here with this armor.
It's not his culture, it's not personal to him.
So we have to... Again, if you don't know Star Wars, you don't know Mandalorians, then you have to understand why is this important.
'Cause someone might say, well, yeah, what Ezra said, just change your armor.
But it's not that simple.
So again, we have to explain this to the audience, so they can really enjoy the emotions of what's going on here.
So they can really enjoy the emotions of what's going on here.
The gauntlet and the base camp are all things that are based on their Clone Wars counterpart.
In some cases, they might even be modeled after their Clone Wars counterpart and adapted.
And again, we developed the look of several different Mandalorian houses...
I think, Vizsla, Kryze...
I don't think we see Saxons in this, but Eldar, you know, Wren.
We have several different paint schemes that these houses would employ for their immediate warriors.
I think that as that expands out, you have these massive houses like, you know, House Wren.
I think they might fall under a bigger house and belong to that... someone more like Kryze.
But ultimately they're even smaller and smaller factions of Mandalorian groups, and some of them don't all play out in the bigger theater that you're seeing, like these big families.
Some of them are working on a smaller scale.
Some of them are a bit more traveling and vagabond in the galaxy.
I think there's a whole range of different ways that the Mandalorians operate as a people, but the binding thing is that they have their armor, their beskar, and that's fundamentally important to them as a people.
In this moment, again, because Sabine was honest about what she...
Her responsibility was with this w*apon, Bo-Katan's giving her the opportunity to prove herself.
That seems fair, and that seems like it's the Mandalorian way.
We've done many, many, many of these scenes now in the different series... the Strategy Scene, the Map Scene.
You can be as literal as you want in these scenes.
Sometimes the maps and the things they're talking about in the center of the room do relate directly to what they're saying.
Sometimes, in all honesty, they do not.
Sometimes it's just visual interest, and what the characters are saying is more important.
You know, the classic in Star Wars is the trench run description in A New Hope.
So, that kind of sets the standard for how you do a briefing so the audience understands the complex nature of what Luke was trying to do.
Here it's not so much about the specificity of the mission as much as the character dynamic.
So, our mission, we know, is to eliminate this w*apon, but you know, I wanted to get more into what Bo-Katan is thinking behind the scenes off to the side, showing that she's recognizing that Sabine is a leader, and a good one, somebody that maybe she feels she herself couldn't be.
And so in the end, you know, as I was saying, I think in "Part 1," it's a story of these two women, Sabine and Bo-Katan, Bo-Katan giving Sabine an opportunity to prove herself, Bo-Katan supporting Sabine, challenging Sabine.
But it's also about Sabine seeing greatness in Bo-Katan, a person that thinks she failed, and failed her people.
And that becomes really important.
So these two characters are really helping each other.
It's not just one direction.
It's not just simply one master, one apprentice.
This dynamic becomes, I think, a little more interesting, and a little more complex, because they're helping each other become the best person that they each can be, which was very important.
And it's a little nod for Clone Wars fans...
The Duchess, so for the people that love Satine. Poor Satine.
I feel bad about that one, but it makes sense, so there you are.
But this is, you know, they're a great group of heroes.
But, boy, they just walk in to this conflict right here, getting spotted.
But you gotta give the stormtroopers their due sometimes, I know.
I talk to fans, and they wish the stormtroopers were more accurate... that they hit their targets more often...
I mean, I wasn't the one that started that.
In the old movies, Obi-Wan says only the Imperial stormtroopers are so precise, and in the rest of the movies they do a pretty good job of being completely imprecise.
So, it's a tough job being a stormtrooper, as they'll tell you.
And they know that, yeah, I gotta stay true to who they are as stormtroopers... but I feel bad.
If you made a bunch of stormtroopers really, really good... and adept at what they do, then they probably won't feel like stormtroopers, In all honesty.
You know, just to... I don't know if it's a big debate in your house, but I think at the end of the day, the clones were better soldiers than the stormtroopers.
I just think that they were trained, they took it more seriously, they're an elite group that just age out, and the stormtroopers are a group of people brought into service.
There are probably some good stormtroopers in there, but not that could match the clones.
But you'll just say I'm biased because of The Clone Wars.
So that's fine. I accept that.
But here, again, the villain...
You know, as we were leading up to this, it's like, wow, the bad guy, he's not too smart because he knows Sabine's going to try to destroy this w*apon.
They just walk in through the hangar, but then you find out that he had a plan all along, and this is just something he let happen because, as villains do, he thinks he controls the situation.
Which he might do at this point, but in his hubris, in his madness for power, he doesn't see that Sabine is smart enough to fix the w*apon, make it more powerful, she might be smart enough to trick you and get it to be used against you.
We all wondered about this Lieutenant of his, and why would he go along with this.
And this shows you that his Mandalorian armor is indeed beskar and is able to be affected by the w*apon.
So, you know then that Tiber's actually wearing stormtrooper armor.
He's really gone over, that he's a Mandalorian that doesn't even wear the armor anymore.
That... What an atrocious idea for a Mandalorian, so.
Always fun with your droid at the port, plugged in, stealing the blueprints.
Classic Star Wars.
Got your two Jedi characters.
Sometimes these simple scenes like this, running and gunning in the hallways, feels the most like Star Wars.
You don't have to try to, it's not always about the Force.
It's about these friendships, it's about these characters, and how they relate to one another.
I always love Kanan, who's a very fun character.
This is, the fans caught right away, is an homage to the Obi-Wan sh*t in Clone Wars, though Clone Wars had about 100 more people outside the doors.
But, you know, size matters not, so we don't worry about that.
It's really the feeling. And for this boy, this is a big conflict.
Ezra's getting involved more and more.
I really love the way the episodic director Saul Ruiz... had Ezra be a bit clumsy at times... barely getting over the boxes, not being perfect.
Those imperfections, to me, make him feel a little bit more realistic as he, you know...
Look at him just leaning off those boxes there, going forward.
Keith Kellogg in the animation team, doing a great job at keeping the humanity intact in these characters.
They're not superheroes, you know.
They're vulnerable.
They feel pain, they get hurt, they get their simple knocks and pings, not just, you know, the big hits.
Bo-Katan throwing her helmet off, the breathing, these are things that really make them feel vulnerable.
When there's vulnerability, you can be worried about them, there's more tension.
So, what will Sabine do?
Now we have a lot of faith in Sabine.
So we know that she's probably going to do something clever here.
But Saxon again, like I said, his quest for power, blinds him to what she's about to do.
Plus it's a pretty, pretty...
I won't say evil, but it's a pretty mean thing that she does here, creating the w*apon used against her, and throwing it against the bad guys.
At least she lets him activate it.
So, it's not like she's the one that does it to him.
But this juxtaposition of power that she now is the one that has the power.
She is inflicting this power that he was using on her, on him, and this is quite a turn because I think in Bo-Katan's mind it's like, what is Sabine saying? What is she doing?
Is she just a different type of Tiber Saxon?
Will she then try to take and become a ruler just like him?
You know, this terrible thing that was going to hurt all their people... now, are you just going to do that to these people?
You know.
It's important questions because your actions are going to define you, the type of person you are.
So, again, Sabine, just like Ezra, I mean... you think of the dark side. Well, this is...
Right down to the blue lightning, that's not Force lightning by any stretch, but the symbolism, it's all there.
This is a moment for Sabine to seize the dark side, her dark side, to become an evil person... to justify inflicting this suffering on another human being, you know.
And the growth that you see in Bo-Katan... from being this horrible person in Clone Wars, who was sided with the t*rrorists and Pre Vizsla to now having a sense of morality, understanding what it means to be a leader, and talking Sabine down from this terrible mistake she's going to make to become evil.
The path between dark and light is not something that is reserved for the Jedi alone.
It is a daily challenge for everyone, to do good or ill.
We all make choices, small choices, large choices, that define us, and we have to overcome the temptation to be cruel at times.
When you're driving in the car and you get cut off, and you get angry, you gotta let go of these angers...
Anger leads to hate, hatred leads to suffering, and this quest for power, which sometimes comes out of fear... leads you to do terrible things, and angry things, and hateful things.
So, we see Sabine very much overcoming this here... her own little journey, uh, playing at the dark side.
And that's what it absolutely is.
You know, we just... I think we are too often limited to just the Force wielders in Star Wars, but it's something for all of us to overcome in all the characters.
And the two Star Destroyers in the sky there tell us that this conflict is not yet over.
There's a whole battle that's going to happen on Mandalore after this two-episode arc of Star Wars Rebels.
But that is not the story that we're actually telling here, because this is Sabine's story, and she doesn't really play a large role in the other story.
It's really Bo-Katan's story at that point.
So here, the two characters coming together, and Sabine...
Sometimes this great gesture can be having power, and then handing it over, seeing greatness, seeing good in someone else, and passing on that power to someone else, someone who's deserving, someone that doesn't think they deserve it, but is humble.
And I think that's what you see here between Sabine and Bo-Katan.
This has come full circle now from The Clone Wars and who Bo-Katan's character was, who had a kind of failing at one point, and now rises to become a leader in her own right.
And hopefully, it's a powerful story.
And she has yet more story to be told, though not today.
And we see a little nod there between Ezra and Sabine... as we see their path clearly as the one we're following on Rebels.
And that is the end of "Heroes of Mandalore: Part 2."
So much more could be said, but I think I've said enough for today.
So, thanks, guys, for watching and listening.
And, as always, may the Force be with you.