There’s this little moment early on in Steps into Shadow that’s driving me up the wall. They just rescued Hondo, Ezra’s shown off some new badass skills he got during the timeskip, and we get this exchange:
Hondo: “Is that really Ezra?”
Sabine: “Most of the time.”
Like. There’s some backstory here. That’s objectively a pretty strange and concerning thing to say. That’s not the type of thing you say when your little brother’s just been going through a rebellious phase and fighting with your parents. Some shit has happened here.
What has Ezra been doing up to this point that Sabine doesn’t see him as himself sometimes?
(Most of the really authoritative, shitty stuff that Ezra does in this episode happens later, spurred on by his promotion. Even with the Dark side, which he had been using before this point, Sabine’s surprised when she sees what he does to the walkers. She even asks when he learned to do that kind of thing, which means it’s new.)
What’s been going on beforehand to get Sabine to this point? What’s Ezra done that gets this offhand reaction out of her but that she hasn’t raised as a serious concern to Hera? Im chewing on drywall I NEED TO KNOW
I kept this in my draft because I was nervous to bring it up (I have some other controversial posts in my drafts that I may post at some point in the future but I'm less worried about this one compared to the others at the moment) I was thinking about the season 2 finale and the season 3 premiere and feel free to disagree with me here all you like, but I think some people can be forgetting that there was a 6 month time skip in between? It may seem like Kanan got past his blindness problem too quickly but that's not technically the case, it was just never shown unfortunately.
The fact that at the end of "Steps into Shadow", after showing us that Ezra was so close to embracing the Dark, to Falling, they had him literally falling on Reclam Station, only to be saved when he placed his trust in Kanan, who appeared out of the darkness, in a shaft of light?????
Thinking about recurring fanfic plots, and the beginning of season three, and Ezra’s visions the first time he visited the Lothal temple, and...
I don’t think Ezra’s worries about being abandoned by the Ghost crew if he stops being useful are actually wrong.
Ezra is Force-sensitive and a good thief. He might have been invited to join the crew even if he was only one of those things. But they didn’t take him in because they liked his personality or because they wanted to get this teenager off the street. They took him in because he’s useful for tackling the Empire. That’s straight up canon.
A lot of fics have Ezra hiding when he’s injured or sick from the rest of the crew not just because showing weakness is dangerous for a street kid, but also because he thinks if he stops being useful they’ll kick him out. And the fics have him get reassured that no, they care about him for more than his skills, and they want him around, that he’s part of the family now, etc. The stories are very nice, I enjoy them!
But those fics sit sort of...next to canon for me. They’re not a full AU but they don’t quite fit with how I’m reading the show.
If Ezra got too injured to fight or decided he wants to get away from the front lines, to work for the rebellion in a support function, or even just not be part of it at all, I don’t think he’d get to keep living on the Ghost. I don’t think he’d just get dumped, but they’d resettle him in other quarters or on the planet of his choice. If the timing was wrong they might even just drop him in a spaceport with some credits and a fake ID to make his own way to a new home.
Kanan didn’t get kicked out when he was injured, but he was always expected to get back to missions eventually. He’s also been on the crew longer.
Hera was willing to leave Kanan in the Empire’s custody at the end of S1 because the rebellion wouldn’t risk personnel or resources on a rescue. That, to me, does not indicate she’d let Ezra keep living on the Ghost if he’s not actively part of the fight. I don’t think she’d be mean about it, there would be promises to keep in touch (and urges to stay or rejoin if this was a choice he was making rather than situational), lots of hugs. But still kicking him out.
At the beginning of S3 Ezra is in a terrible place emotionally and mentally. He’s overworking himself, holding himself too responsible for things he has no control over (and we see Hera reinforcing this mentality), desperate to prove his usefulness, easily angered, easily upset.
It’s easy to see that Kanan’s withdrawal is a major part of this, but what the hell is everyone else in Ezra’s life doing?
Even if they never got the full details of the mission to Malachor, everyone knows Ahsoka was lost and Kanan massively injured. It doesn’t take a full mission report to figure out that whatever the hell happened it must have been traumatizing for Ezra.
(And it’s probable that they’re informed of anything relevant to the rebellion, such as Darth Fucking Vader being there and nearly killing Ezra.)
Kanan is recovering from his injury and adapting to his new disability. He’s also depressed and absent from Ezra’s life. Okay. And the rest of them?
Well, Ahsoka’s gone, presumed dead.
Rex is continuing what he’s always done, giving Ezra advice on how to be an effective soldier and sharing stories of the previous war.
Sabine’s a peer who’s got her own trauma and mostly seems to just be going along on missions and occasionally snarking at him.
Zeb’s the same, with a bonus of reminding Ezra that Kanan’s not present.
Hera’s holding Ezra to impossible standards, chewing him out when missions go wrong, praising him for the promotion to lieutenant commander, but not offering any emotional support for his trauma. Yes, Hera goes to talk to Kanan, saying he ought to talk to Ezra. This was important, but that’s indirect support.
Sato’s got a strictly professional relationship with Ezra, not a friendship. He commends a military job well done.
The opening two episodes of S3 really laid bare that Kanan was the only emotionally supportive adult in Ezra’s life (whether he was doing a good job at that is a whole other topic). With Kanan absent, it becomes starkly, painfully clear that the rebellion is exploiting and endangering a vulnerable teenager and always has been.
In true Star Wars fashion, the entire situation is fucked up.
Zeb: I did suggest an alternative plan to Sir, Hera, but Sir quite properly reminded me that Sir is in command, and we should all obey Sir at all times.
Hera: Who reminded you?
Zeb: Lieutenant Bridger. Or, as I am privileged to call him, Sir.
Hera: Ezra, you are many things but, believe me, you are not 'Sir.' If anyone is Sir, I am Sir.
