Ezra's Brutal Darkside Moments in Star Wars Rebels

I share what I think are brutal darkside moments for Ezra Bridger in Star Wars Rebels.

Thanks for watching and may the force be with you!

- Mike

[flochforster]

Ezra controlling the walker genuinely gave me chills. I can't imagine the fear and panic the pilot was experiencing.

[GrouchyRaccoon]

"When did Kanan teach you that?" "He didn't." It gives me chills every time I watch it. It's not just the fact that Ezra knows he's tapping into the Dark Side, it's that he knows just how powerful he is when he does it.

[DeathsOverture]

I love how he was manipulated by Maul and overall tempted by the dark side to protect his friends. It was totally believable and not just a bad egg situation. This arc gave so much opportunity for growth of his relationship with Kanan.

[ahsoka]

We saw what happened to Ezra when he lost his parents, Ahsoka, then Kanan so imagine what would happen to Ezra if he loses Sabine?

[LadyElfTari]

Ezra had so many struggles against the Dark Side throughout the series. But in the end he always overcame the temptations. He pushed past his fear and anger. In some ways, he was almost the anti-Anakin; Palpatine made him practically the same offer but Ezra, instead, accepted his losses and let go, and so was able to tell Palpatine where to shove it.

I'm honestly so genuinely proud of him and I really don't understand people who want him to fall to the Dark Side now after so many successful moments of resisting it. Just let my boy be the kind, empathetic, badass, Light-sided hopebringer he is.

[ShrekReacts]

It's such a shame that so many overlook rebels without giving it a chance, so many people bitch about it- having only seen a couple episodes and regurgitating the same arguments over and over again

[maskedman]

Any else noticed that the sith holocron’s voice is the same voice actress that voiced ventress in clone wars

[wraith]

I want that rebels sequel already I want to see Sabine and Ezra together

[armandomendoza]

I like to think Ezra will become a new mace windu, tapping into the dark without falling

[carmensfb]

“When did Kanan teach you this?”

“He didn’t.”

[rioreverso]

Ezra is a unique Jedi in a way that he kept being seduced to the dark side but always manage to pull himself back to the light with the help of his mentors and friends. At the end he was able to find balance and harness the dark side without being turned completely (e.g when he closed the portal in the World between Worlds I believe he used the dark side when he activated the Son) and he was able to resist the Palpatine's seduction. He's a true grey Jedi

[joseortega-mpfi]

What surprises me the most is how people overlooked the way Maul is taunting Ezra through the Dark Side Code ( Min 6:06 ): “ Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The force shall free me.” You can see the similarities with what Maul is saying.
Maul only knew the dark side and nothing more. That is why Obi Wan pity him in his last moments.

[ladyvader]

I'm HYPED to see him in live action. I hope he constructs a PURPLE lightsaber, just like his great-grand master, Mace Windu. This will signify his growth and how he is unlike other Jedi: he uses both the DARK and LIGHT side, especially when he has to fare on his own in the unknown regions.

[TheMedievalman]

I think you pretty much covered all the overtly brutal and unsettling moments. But what I found fascinating (which I didn't consciously realise until after the series finale) were all the subtle unsettling moments that showed just how close he was to the Dark Side. And they were all logical progressions, too. The first season he was constantly frustrated. Nothing serious here, right? After all, he was a young teen living in the shadow of the Empire, and finally given the opportunity to do something about it. Of _course_ he would think things were coming too slowly for him. But this frustration leads to an emotion that's the logical next step: anger. He constantly lashes out at people. Hera, Tseebo, Zeb definitely, even, or especially, Kanan. He quickly calms down (usually), but it takes the slightest of failures or provocations to get him to express that anger.

He might have been able to overcome this quick route to anger (Luke had pretty much the same problem, after all) had he not had a run in with perhaps the worst possible enemy: Darth Vader. And because of that encounter, Ezra learnt for the first time what real fear was. And this fear stayed with him throughout all of the second season. Because now it wasn't just Kanan who was targetted by Vader, he was also personally targetted. Now, the Inquisitors were not just coming after Kanan and Ahsoka, but him, and they were relentless and ruthless in a way he'd never seen before, even from Imperial officials and officers. He was so scared that he actively wished he could just go back to being a street rat again, even going so far as to confess to Hondo (of all people) that his new path was scaring him. Even Yoda commented on Ezra's fear, and attempted to keep him grounded by letting Ezra know that even Yoda felt fear, which was definitely a surprise to Ezra, but he still failed to fully understand what Yoda was telling him, meaning he wasn't quite prepared for his trial at Malachor. Which meant that Maul was nearly able to successfully use his anger and his fear to fully turn him (and as an aside, I believe that Maul was genuine in his wishes to teach Ezra. I think he wanted Ezra as a student, both to make Ezra a better person and to have a powerful ally against Vader and Sidious. But that's for another time). Luckily for him, he has people around him that he feels he needs to protect, so he's able to quickly overcome that fear. This is good, right?

Well, no. Because Malachor had him experience the loss of Kanan's sight, and Ahsoka. And this caused the third step on his path to the Dark Side: guilt. He wasn't strong enough to protect those two, and it was because he was too angry and afraid. So, he took the worst possible lesson from what Yoda was trying to teach him, and instead of controlling his anger and fear, he suppressed them. And this resulted in the next emotional step: a callous disregard for the lives of his enemies. Now, if someone proved to be a threat against the people he considered his family, he would show no mercy. Imperial walkers led off cliff edges, threatening Ugnaughts to get out of his way, destroying the entire power supply of Reiklam Station and letting it fall regardless of the risk to everyone else around him, letting an Imperial officer take the blame for being the new Fulcrum (resulting in his execution), and so on. It's only when he has an encounter with Obi-wan does he finally start to pull back, as he finally begins to see just what he's turning into. But this was only a start, and it isn't until he is reunited with Ahsoka again that he fully embraces everything that all his teachers were trying to tell him, and he truly begins to _be_, not just act, a true Jedi.

Through all of this, it was his closeness to his new family (and I would argue especially Sabine, but we'll have another Ezrabine convesation later) that kept him anchored enough to refrain from fully Falling. In this, he's a lot like Luke and his journey. But that darkness is still in him when the series finale happens. And being alone with Thrawn, it would be difficult to not slip back into old habits, especially since Thrawn would encourage this in order to survive and fight against the Grysk, assuming Thrawn and Ezra manage to return to Csilia. And if this is true, I'm wondering if we might be in store for a twist that we didn't see coming. Ahsoka and Sabine are searching for Thrawn in order to save Ezra from him. But what if, when they arrive, they find out that Ezra has Fallen due to the fight against the Grysk? And now, instead of fighting Thrawn, they're forced to team up with him in order to save Ezra from himself before he does something so Dark that he can no longer be redeemed.

[bushidobrown]

I like how when the grand inquisitor started feeling nervous he retreated straight for the high ground. Is this something Vader taught his inquisitors or is it just battle IQ.

[NeonVictor]

4:46 that Darkside Moment was one my Favorite from Rebels Season 1 but the other Moment's he had with the Sith holocron was pretty cool especially the Hallway scene

[steveno]

And people call Rebels just a show for kids! LOL. Rebels has some of the best character arcs in all of Star Wars.

[Quickleaf]

One of my favorite things in both of Filoni's shows (Clone Wars and Rebels) is his use of lighting to highlight how his characters are experiencing both their own feelings and their connection to the Force.

In Clone Wars, every time a character uses the Force for an application that might be considered "Dark" -- usually Anakin, but sometimes Ahsoka -- at least some part of their face is always in shadow. It helps that the characters are all expressive, but the fact that that the animation is so details and three dimensional allows for the masterful subtly that elevates this beyond it's first look as "a kids show"

In Summation, Dave Filoni should be in charge of Star Wars until he dies or doesn't want it anymore XD

[markkuilomaki]

The first time ezra used dark side was epic. He was like "you are gonna pay for hurting my master".

[sluicefriggins]

I always thought they were going the Starkiller route with Ezra, especially his relationship with Maul. And they still could! Snoke had an apprentice before Kylo 😎