what would you have me do?

friendly reminder that Caleb Dume spent the entirety of his life fighting a war, never living long enough to see the end of it.

kanan never got to see his beautiful baby boy and i’ll never be okay about it

Honestly I loved episode three. I loved the gaping hole Kanan left in the narrative. He's a ghost, he's right there, he never existed, he never left.

When Hera talks to Mon Mothma and the senators and Mothma asks about Jacen, and Ezra is mentioned by name, but not Kanan. Just 'I lost people who were like family' and the only person she can be taking about is Kanan but he is unnamed. We know. She knows. But the others in the scene cant. And the republic wouldn't really want to acknowledge that loss. A Jedi died fighting for them, and his wife is begging for help to find their Jedi adoptive son and there 'isn't resources' because there is never fucking resources for anything that doesn't line the elites pockets because under the veneer of space opera, capitalism is rotting and always will be.

And when Hera is talking to Jacen, and he's been playing with Chopper when he should be with his Dad or Ezra learning Jedi stuff, and when he ways he wants to be a Jedi and it just hangs there and Hera tells him she knows. How many excuses has she come up with to keep him away from the Jedi stuff because its safer for him to let his talent burn out and she just can't loose another person to that. She can't go through it again. How long can she keep him safe from it? She can't. He is Kanan's son as much as hers. Ezra will come back, but at least Ezra will Know. Will have known Kanan. Know what Hera fears.

And when Ahsoka talks about the force with Sabine and she says the same things Kanan did, and Sabine doesn't stop her because how would Ahsoka know? She barely knew Kanan. When she trains Sabine with wooden weapons and its the same way Kanan did. And when they do the blind drills, and she should have been learning to fight blind from Kanan. Even the mask Sabine wears looks more like Kanan's mask from 'Twilight of the Apprentice' than any of the other helmets we see used for the same drill.

Kanan left this huge absence in the show, that only exists for those who knew him, both in universe and those who watched Rebels. And I just think its fucking beautiful.

I will never, ever stop talking about the fact that despite Ezra saying that before the joined the Ghost crew he only ever thought about and looked out for himself, one of the very first things we see him do in the very first episode is literally put himself between two Imperial officers and some random innocent guy they were going to arrest for no reason, steal an officer's commlink, and use it to send a fake red alert message because doing all that might save this random guy from being arrested, imprisoned, and ultimately killed.

Kid was putting himself in danger to potentially save a total stranger and he really wants people to believe he was self-serving and apathetic.

What I absolutely love is the parallel with Kanan in "A New Dawn". He often states that he doesn't make connections with people and looks out only for himself. But time and time again he ends up helping. They are both such wonderful examples of Jedi and I love them.

#THAT THING JEDI AND CLONES DO #JUST JEDI & CLONES THINGS #GLAD TO SEE IT’S STILL ALIVE AND WELL IN TBB #(UNLIKE DEPA IS ABOUT TO BE SOBS)

everyone else: wow I can’t believe they retconned the feelings me: wow I can’t believe they retconned the violence

it’s actually extremely important to Caleb/Kanan’s feelings about Order 66 that he was forced to kill his friends and getting rid of that entirely dramatically changes his entire experience of the Purge????

[text: Soot and Big-Mouth go down at my hand. Two days ago we all shared a ripe meiloorun.]

Fuck everyone except for this person who pitched up Caleb’s voice to make him actually sound like a 14 year old

One thing I have to give to the Order 66 scene of TBB is hearing Depa scream for Caleb to run, then continue screaming as she was shot and was dying just off screen, absolutely wrecked me emotionally and I still have not recovered.

Like Master, like Padawan

The Bad Batch: Aftermath | Season 1, Episode 1

Hey you know what I’m suddenly and randomly frustrated about?

That we never got to see Zeb and Kanan discussing what it means to have survived a genocide. Yeah, Rebels is a kid’s show, more so than TCW, and they had to gloss over a lot of the heavier stuff in the early seasons - but by S3 and S4 they had dealt with quite a few dark storylines already.

Seriously, it’s such a missed opportunity that we barely ever got to explore their similarities in their experiences, as well as the differences.

For example, Zeb’s people were wiped out when he was an adult, while Kanan was still a child. Does it make it harder for either of them? That’s stuff to talk about.

Both Kanan and Zeb find out other survivors of their kind during the series (Ahsoka and Yoda in Kanan’s case, maybe Obi-Wan if Ezra told him, and the two other Lasat + his hidden homeworld with a whole populatin in Zeb’s case.) I can’t imagine what that would do to someone, this knowledge that you weren’t actually alone all this time - that there more, that you could have found each other. Do you feel guilty for not looking hard enough? Do you think about those who still died, years later after you thought they did, and if you had been looking maybe you could have saved them? Imagine if we’d seen Kanan and Zeb help each other deal with that!

Kanan gets to pass on his people’s teachings - and sacred weapons - to a student - meanwhile Zeb never gets to do that. Never gets to give a young Lasat a bo-rifle the way Kanan could help Ezra build a lightsaber - or could teach Sabine to fight with one. Obviously that’d make Zeb feel something, right?

But on the other hand, Zeb has millions of Lasat still alive on Lira-San, when Kanan never gets to see a full Temple ever again. What was it like, leaving the nebula? Talking about what Zeb experienced down there, how the both of them feel about it?

Here, one more: Zeb has no choice but to constantly put his ‘last survivor of a slaughtered race’ status on display, for better or for worse, while Kanan can and has to hide who he is most of the time. Would that foster resentment in either of them, sometimes? You so badly want to tell the world that you’re still here, you still live! And at the same time you’re so tired of running you just want to become invisible and live in piece. Would showing who you are be more of a burden, or a relief? Zeb has a more obvious target painted across his back, but at the same time less people care about a Lasat still being alive compared to a Jedi. But Kanan has to live with the fear that he’s disrespecting the legacy of his Order by constantly lying about his identity (it’s such a sailant point in his character that he sheds all of the twenty years of hiding away just before he dies, to become Caleb Dume again).

Last one: both Kanan and Zeb have to confront multiple times the ones who slaughtered their respective people - Kallus, the Clones, and the Inquisitors. Both have to come to terms with those encounters, and it takes them a long time - and yet they don’t discuss it with each other! Zeb growing to like Kallus - the asshole who was ‘just following orders’ but is learning to see beyond that and grows as a person - and Kanan growing to like the Clones - the ones who only ever wanted to do what was right and always had a conscience, but had that stolen away from them and were made to just follow orders - is so important! As is the fact that Zeb and Kallus never had any prior connection, but Caleb Dume loved his Clone trooper brothers. THE BAGGAGE.

I just… I just really wanted to see Zeb and Kanan helping each other through the shitton of trauma and grief and pain they’re both carrying.

(read from right to left)

In other news, the unofficial Rebels manga adaptation continues to be the best thing ever: 

THE SHEER DEPTH OF EMOTION CONVEYED HERE *sobs* It’s just so beautiful. 

YOU CAN JUST FEEL KANAN’S REVERENCE, AND THE PAIN THAT THE MEMORIES BRING BACK – AND THEN THE CHILD-LIKE LOVE AND GRATITUDE! 

LOOK AT HIM!!!!!!! Kanan has been so hurt, and is so afraid to hope, but then all of his fears just melt away into pure, uncomplicated joy that Yoda is here. The Grandmaster of the Order, the greatest constant of a Jedi’s life – apart from the Force – and Kanan just got him back just as he finally started returning to who he was. (It’s not a coincidence either. When Yoda asks him what’s changed, because he couldn’t see Kanan before, Kanan tells him that he’s taken an apprentice – so Yoda can reach Kanan now because he has tied himself back to his identity as a Jedi.) 

That last panel has just so many feels crammed into it it’s almost unbelievable. Jedi kids love Yoda so, so much, and he makes them feel so safe. I love how Kanan can put all of his questions aside and just accept things as they are, because his world is making sense again. Nothing is really such a big deal anymore, because Yoda is here and so things are okay!

Kanan thanks Yoda for just being here, for him, because it’s so important to him. Yoda doesn’t even need to do anything, who he is is more than enough for his lost kids. I THINK ABOUT THE GALAXY’S BEST FROG GRANDPA AND HIS ADORABLE JEDI KIDS A LOT ALRIGHT???