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Encoded by Hunter
Crazy4TV.com
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In the beginning of this episode,
in the Writers' Room
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where we come up with all the ideas,
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I knew that we wanted to do
a training episode.
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We wanted to train Sabine
to use the Darksaber.
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And just finding a way in on that
was a bit of a challenge.
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A lot of people didn't think
that we could suspend the story
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just on one plot about Sabine training.
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You wanted to speak with me?
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But I and a couple other people did.
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So, we decided
this is all about sword training.
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To make it interesting in the beginning,
and remember
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a lot of people won 't know
what the Darksaber is.
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I added really late
in the stages of the story
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this history of the Darksaber,
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which explains that it was created
by a Mandalorian,
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who was the first Mandalorian
that was ever inducted
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into the Jedi Order as a child.
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I created that history and a lot of it
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while I was actually visiting
the set of Episode VIII.
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I had to storyboard this sequence here
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where you see these shadows
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that would later be animated
by Justin Ridge.
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But he and I combined to do this
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as we have many things
over the years.
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But it was an exciting thing
'cause there I was over in London,
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seeing what Rian was up to,
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and that was really inspirational for me.
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Again, challenging us to tell
a great story and to push things
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and do things that we hadn't.
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So I thought this shadow play
would be a fun way to do it.
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Something that inspired me
for that shadow play would probably be
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Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings.
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He had a great opening sequence
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where he explained the whole
War of the Ring using shadows.
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So it was something that I told
Joel Aron, the CG Supervisor, about
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just as a reference point of,
"Here's one way this has been done,"
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and had a wonderful texture
and look to it.
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This next shot here
was really important
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because I wanted to get across
this idea of Sabine's current family,
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and then the birds below the painting
represent the Wrens,
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her actual family.
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It's always fun to see artwork
in Sabine's room.
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So in this case,
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I had that special painting
done by Kilian to make a story point
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just out of that visual.
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And that there is one of my
favorite things, when Chopper purrs.
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Chopper, I've always said,
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at heart is actually
a really nice character,
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a good character,
but he's often gruff on the outside.
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But I thought the animation really
sells that, the kindness in that moment.
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This is like
a family intervention moment.
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These scenes can be really difficult
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'cause they have to give you
a lot of information.
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But one thing I really wanted to do
in this episode
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was explain and express
a lot of emotion.
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I was very careful about how
Hera would react in this scene.
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You see a lot of this scene
is not Hera talking at all,
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but Hera observing.
Watch her observe.
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She doesn't like
what Ezra is saying there.
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She's waiting, she's picking her spot
because Hera's the most aware
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of what Sabine's past is
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and what's causing Sabine
to react the way she is.
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It's also very like all these characters,
all these men in the foreground,
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to be explaining this situation to Sabine
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and why she should be
doing these things.
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And, frankly, not really listening
to what Sabine has to say,
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or what she's actually feeling.
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And I felt like Hera needs to be
the counterpoint to that,
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this almost inquisition.
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They want her to do something,
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but they're not really thinking
about what she needs emotionally.
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And Hera is now supporting that,
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but she's also cutting through
to the bare facts of the thing.
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She empathizes with Sabine,
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but she also knows that this needs
to happen for a greater good.
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She's trying to appeal to Sabine
on that level.
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For me, I always thought
that Sabine would assume
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that Hera would be supportive of her
and her reluctance to do this.
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So she's a bit surprised
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when Hera actually supports
the training of her with the saber.
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But it's 'cause Hera's playing
a bigger game here.
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She understands the bigger picture.
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Kanan holding onto the saber there
with Sabine,
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he's not just impressing upon her
the importance of the training,
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but also it's reflective
of his actual reluctance to let her train,
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or to train her the way
that she probably needs to be trained,
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which will become a bigger theme
as we go forward in the episode.
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And she actually tries to learn.
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So this is kind of a classic Star Wars
stance with a lightsaber,
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but it's not turned on yet,
so it's a little twist.
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You need moments like this
with these little skittering guys
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just to give the full atmosphere
of Star Wars.
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Star Wars needs to feel
like a big world,
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always a vast galaxy
outside of the little main plot here.
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And since there wasn't going to be
a big B plot,
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I tried to let some of the things
in the environment,
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like the spiders and the Bendu
play a little bit of a vastness role
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to give depth to the galaxy.
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This scene is all about
your expectation
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of going to be trained
with this lightsaber,
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but there's a lot of work
that surrounds it.
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So them having to set up camp,
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all the not-fun things that go on when
you're wanting to do this adventure
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or do what you would like to do.
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But discipline comes
in many forms and training,
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and that's what Sabine
has to learn here.
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They're just very old motifs,
to be honest,
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when you're dealing
with this type of story,
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a master and apprentice in training.
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Probably you wouldn't think of it,
these little wooden sabers
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are one of the more difficult props
to make because, ultimately,
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they don't look like much of anything.
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You want to accept them as wood
without being too designed.
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Kanan wouldn't have had a lot of time
to make these things,
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but they have to be effective as a prop.
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So I always find
those designs and models
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can be actually the more difficult
kind of props to make.
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But in the end
you don't really think about them,
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which I think means they're effective
'cause you just accept what they are.
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But every little thing
needs to be designed.
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Here you see Kanan pretty hard on her
right at the start
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because Sabine is cocky.
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She is a good fighter,
so we have to get that out of the way,
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that she is a capable warrior,
but she hasn't fought like this,
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with a weapon like this.
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And in a lot of ways, Kanan thinks
that the knowledge of the weapon
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and the danger of it,
he's being overprotective of her.
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He doesn't realize that.
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He just thinks
he's being a diligent master
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when he's actually being
a more limited master
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than he was
even when he taught Ezra.
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So, this type of thing here,
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with the posing you see going on
with the lightsabers and the stance,
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that's something
that we would research.
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Steward Lee, the episodic director
on this episode,
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he and I have worked together now
for pretty much 12 years on Star Wars.
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And I know he's very adept
at sword play and martial arts,
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so it was important
to have him do this episode
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to make sure that the sword fighting
would be locked down
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and believable and
based on some reality.
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And he did a wonderful job with that.
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This Hera-Kanan scene
is really the first of several scenes
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where the mother figure checks in
on how the father figure is doing.
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And she is, again, a bit more wise
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because she's looking at
the bigger picture
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as to what Sabine actually needs,
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and how Kanan might be limiting her
based on his own fears.
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Fear of, you know,
allegedly that she could hurt herself.
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But I think there's also with Kanan
a fear that he's not as good a master.
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He might not be able
to teach her well enough.
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He could barely, in some ways,
teach Ezra in the long run,
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and now teaching Sabine.
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The truth is, it's probably
more difficult for Kanan to do
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than it is for her to learn
because she's such a skilled warrior.
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In this scene here again,
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there was a big challenge
with Ezra in the episode.
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The easy thing to do would be
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to have his kind of mocking
and barbing of Sabine
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become something
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that's way overplayed
in making fun of her.
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And when Taylor,
we were performing this,
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he did several versions,
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and I think between me
and Tiya and the cast,
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we could sit there and kind of say,
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"Okay, he's trying to tease her,
but he's not trying to belittle her."
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He doesn't want to be mean.
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For Ezra, it's hard to understand,
where it's been difficult for him to learn
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to lightsaber fight and use the Force,
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how can Sabine learn this
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without even having the ability
to use the Force?
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But you don't want it ever to come
across that Ezra is saying these things
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and mocking her
basically because she's a girl.
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"You can't do this
because you're a girl."
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That's not relevant here whatsoever.
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She's easily as good a warrior as he is.
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This is just a warrior
that needs to use a different tool.
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And that type of learning
can apply to any scenario,
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whether it's about
fighting with weapons
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or learning some other skill.
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Here we have Uncle Rau.
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He's playing the role
of kind of a mentor
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more from her side of things,
a Mandalorian side,
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and kind of how they would deal
with the situation,
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which is to upgrade their technology.
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Mandalorians are prideful,
brilliant warriors in their own right.
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They're also technologically savvy
and advanced.
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This is how they've fought the Jedi.
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So again, this kind of plays
into the opening with Tarre Vizsla
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in the images of them fighting.
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So you're seeing here
almost a small reenactment
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of a Jedi-Mandalorian war
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and how a Mandalorian
would get the upper hand
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surprising Jedi with technology
and then cutting them down,
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finishing them off.
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So they'd get this advantage,
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but while it's kind of fun for Sabine
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and it lets her have
a little bit of bragging rights,
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it also undermines her in Kanan's eyes.
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Because having that kind of advantage
isn't going to work,
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he knows in the long run.
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We actually see Kanan
get a little mad here.
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This is a bold move.
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As a kid you were all
often challenging your parents,
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sometimes you know it,
sometimes you don't.
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But challenging Kanan
was important here.
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She oversteps,
and Kanan gets rather aggressive,
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more aggressive
than we've seen probably,
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especially towards Sabine.
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But he's reacting emotionally
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because he's actually inward
about himself and his own concerns,
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and now he feels like
she's not taking it seriously.
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It's just excuses, excuses
for not wanting to do things.
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But now she gets very angry
and compliments Ezra.
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I thought it'd be important
in this moment
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she had some clarity and she said
something nice about Ezra,
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that he must be very good
with the Force
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because he's learned
to be skilled from Kanan,
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which is proving very difficult.
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I love the environments
the team comes up with.
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I think that you look here,
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the environments very believable
and integrated, the ground plain,
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and everybody just does
a wonderful job when rendering this.
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This moment, I mean, every moment,
it just adds up
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and becomes important
in this episode for me.
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But these quiet moments are
equally as important
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as the moments when they're fighting.
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This is the look inside Sabine's mind,
what's really bothering her.
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When you're mad at your parents,
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sometimes you can talk to your siblings
and you have a lot of clarity.
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So this is that moment
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where Ezra really gets behind the wall
for the first time with Sabine
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and learns about what's truly
troubling her, what's blocking her.
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This moment was a big deal for me.
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I love moments
where there is no dialogue,
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where the characters
aren't saying anything,
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but they're expressing things
through the lack of dialogue.
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You get inside their mind.
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In a 21-minute episode,
there really is never enough time
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to have the characters think
and come to conclusions
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and thought processes.
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So that moment of stillness,
of quiet, I think,
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helps land this wonderful acting
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that Tiya and Taylor are doing
in this scene.
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And I just threw a little Bendu in here,
I think, as just the observer again.
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People wanted to read a lot into this.
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But I think Bendu's always curious
of his surroundings
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and why would the Jedi teach
this non-Jedi.
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Here again, in this series of scenes
with Hera and Kanan,
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this was a scene when I,
very early on in writing the episode,
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this was one of the first scenes
I actually wrote.
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I actually took this bit of dialogue,
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and took it to Tiya and Vanessa,
and I said,
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"I want you guys to read this scene
and see if this makes sense."
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It was very important to me to get input
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from the women working on this show.
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I get a lot of input
from my wife constantly
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on female characters
and their portrayal.
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And how to attack these portrayals
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and express the portrayal
of these characters
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and to have some authenticity.
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The only way I've been able, I think,
to achieve that
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is by sharing information
and then listening and paying attention
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to their reactions
and their thoughts on this.
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If this becomes more believable,
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then it's in large part
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due to their efforts
and inclusion in this process.
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Vanessa and Tiya
very much liked this scene.
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Vanessa said it really related
to her, some of the ways she feels.
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And I think that you hear her
in the line when she says,
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"I know you don't,
but it's not about you."
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"This isn't about you."
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It's a key moment for me,
for Kanan to try to understand,
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and is he going to listen to her?
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Is he going to pay attention
to what Hera's saying
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or is he going to kind of go along
as he always had,
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as this Jedi that has these skills?
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He's overcome a lot of things himself,
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but is he applying
his experience to Sabine?
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Is he allowing for her own experience
and her own thoughts?
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How can he become
a better teacher for her?
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What does she need
to achieve this rather difficult task
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of learning to use a lightsaber?
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The stage is set by Act 3.
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I think it was very important
that both characters admit
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some level of error here,
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that it's not really all on one person
ever in this situation,
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but both people need
to take a step back,
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and kind of apologize and say,
"Let's start over."
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We don't really get enough of that
these days from people
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when emotions run high.
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So any chance you can set an example
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and say, "Let's do this the right way,
let's start over,"
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I think is a good thing in a story.
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So here the training
is basically starting over again
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and starting properly
and with more formality.
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This is going to be
with the actual saber.
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I think everybody's curious,
Fenn Rau, Ezra, as to how this will go.
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These ideas here
where the blade has energy,
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and it seems to have
a lot of weight to it,
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are ideas that I used to talk about
with George when we would talk about
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original lightsaber combat
as he envisioned it in A New Hope.
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The electricity of the blades
and the energy
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really drew the sabers together.
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There was kind of a heaviness
to pull them apart.
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Mark Hamill actually talks about
in some interviews
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how they would use the lightsabers
in the original Star Wars.
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So I tried to keep that alive here
and express it.
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I thought that while the Jedi
we've seen since the prequels
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were very skilled
with lightsaber fighting
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and could move them
all around acrobatically,
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for Sabine, she would be expressing
more of that experience Luke had,
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which is, this is a
completely new thing.
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And again, in the training
with the lightsaber fighting here
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is paralleling the emotional
state of the characters.
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It's all very important.
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And Steward Lee
did a great job with his team
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of bringing this action to life
when we set the stage.
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Brilliant choreography by him.
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But it's all about the attitude, the move,
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the speed of the lightsaber swinging,
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the speed of the training is matching
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what's going on
in the characters' minds.
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I prepped Tiya for this well in advance.
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I started talking to her
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a couple months earlier
about this episode,
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about the emotional range
that would be required of her
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to sell this, to make it believable,
to get inside the character's mind.
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We wanted to establish
a bit of the backstory for Sabine
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and why she would be so emotional,
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and what was her comfort level.
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I think as a director
you have to be responsible
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for your actors and how they're going
to be handling these emotions.
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She was so professional and amazing,
take after take as we did this.
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And we didn't have to do many,
to be honest. She was really on.
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She was well prepared for the moment.
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This scene and most of this episode
was recorded
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with just her and Freddie
for these moments
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so they could both really dive in
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and have a space where they could
really get at each other
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and experience these emotions.
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So, again, now she's using the tools
in a smart way,
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not as an aggressive way,
but as a way to help herself out.
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You gotta get burned a little bit,
this isn't a perfect thing.
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I think little setbacks and injuries
are a part of the learning process.
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That's what that little damage there.
It also frustrates her.
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And now, Kanan,
look how much better he is.
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Of course, he would be better, right?
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He doesn't need his lightsaber on.
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But what Kanan's doing here,
unfortunately for him dangerously,
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is he's underestimating
the emotional power behind Sabine,
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what's actually driving her,
how hurt she is.
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There's a real risk here for him
that if she unleashes this anger,
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that it's powerful.
That's true of anything.
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It's not just true for Jedi and Sith.
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You'd think like,
"If you tap into your anger..."
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The warning there in Stat Wars is that
that anger,
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tapping into anger
is dangerous for anybody to do.
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And here you see Sabine
embracing her anger,
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and look how powerful she becomes.
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Kanan's backing off,
he doesn't want to hurt her,
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but now he's at a clear disadvantage
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as she just gets absorbed
into this emotional state
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and lets her anger and her sorrow
empower her.
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Does she even see Kanan,
or does she see Kanan in front of her
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as embodying all that hurt
and all that pain?
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And these are the things
that you have to go through
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directing it, writing it, acting it.
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What is this emotional state?
What's driving her?
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It fuels the renders,
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Joel can make
these crackling electricity,
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it fuels the animation
for the expressions
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and this breakdown moment.
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There's a real chance,
she could have killed Kanan here.
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What could he do?
He's not going to hurt her.
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They've brought this upon themselves.
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But she can't do it
because the emotions peak.
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Your anger is often followed
by tremendous regret and remorse.
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People that lash out,
you come to your sanity.
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That's the terrible thing about it,
is that then you see clearly
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everything that's gone on
and everything you've done wrong,
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and you've made things worse.
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That's why you can't give in
to these emotions.
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But what you need is support
in these high emotional times.
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Young people get confused
when they're emotional
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and they express themselves.
They're vulnerable.
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And so, what she needs
more than anything
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is support of the people around her,
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of this family.
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She lost a family.
It's hard for her to accept a new family.
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And here, in a very symbolic gesture,
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I wanted this kind of archetype
of the warrior, Fenn Rau,
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to kneel before her, her brother.
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They're showing respect.
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They're showing respect for her
for this expression of emotions,
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for this empowering.
It becomes an empowering moment.
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It's not a weakness
to feel remorse, to cry.
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And in the end, she's a lot stronger
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for having the support
of these people around her.
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And that's what this story
is ultimately about.