I finished the Rebels episode A World Between Worlds and cried so hard once again. I don’t know why this show is affecting me so much this time around!! I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much watching a show!! But anyway, since I did, now I must share my thoughts.
The owl, Morai, WANTED Ezra to save Ahsoka. She was asking him to!! I appreciate the detail that Ezra isn’t brashly choosing to do this on his own. Instead, the owl, the Force, is guiding him.
And also…AHSOKA IS STOLEN FROM HER FATE MIRACULOUSLY. IT WAS FITTING SHE DIE BY HER MASTER’S CORRUPT HAND. IT WAS EQUALLY FITTING THAT SHE BE STOLEN AWAY FROM DEATH BY SOMEONE ACTING BY THE FORCE’S WILL.
Ezra just grabbed her, and pulled her out!! I love that imagery. Like grabbing a chocolate bar from the television lol (I’m irrelevantly and irreverently reminded of charlie and chocolate factory here, rip me)
I love that the narrative brings back Ezra’s struggle here. His struggle to give in to power, to hold on to his attachments too tightly. The struggle that Star Wars, in many ways, is fundamentally about. Ezra seeing Kanan’s sacrifice again and choosing to accept that he did what had to be done was so powerful. And Hera’s scream at the end got to me :(
“You can’t save your master…and I can’t save mine.” Ahsoka and Ezra, here in this moment, are highlighted by their similarity in being two apprentices left behind. They’re so connected by this. It’s very appropriate that it’s Ahsoka he saved, just for this moment. She was the one who could get through to him. She was who he needed here for this moment.
Ezra pulled Ahsoka out, he saved her life from her fate. He knew it was possible. So standing there watching Kanan’s sacrifice, he knew he could do it. He had the power to save him (or so he believed, since in reality it was a Sith trick). It was so important for Ezra’s character arc, for his closure, that he stand there and choose to let Kanan go. He needed that opportunity, so he could use the strength it took to refuse it.
When you have the ability to bring someone back from the dead, you must have the wisdom and strength and resolve to know when not to. Because sometimes it’s true that there is a moment where it is right to reach in, to change someone’s fate!!! And other times, the right decision is to let go.
I love that he stood with Hera, looking at the desecrated landscape made new. Hera and Ezra were who Kanan was closest with. It makes sense that this last moment of closure was with her. I love that she was given this, as well.
Ezra had to learn one final lesson. This was the end of the arc of Kanan’s sacrifice—the writers didn’t just give us one mourning episode, they gave us an entire arc. I love how much honor and care they put into this.