With the late-season episode “Vision of Hope” as his springboard, in Oh Captain My Captain – The Essential Role of Hera, Ben Wahrman extolled the virtues of the Ghost crew’s real leader, Hera Syndulla. While lapsed Jedi Kanan stands at the forefront in many of their missions—and holds the designation Spectre One—it’s just a canny smokescreen for what’s really going on:

“Hera is the one not only calling most of the shots, but also keeping the team from flying apart due to mistrust, differences and the simple friction of five (six counting droids) beings rooming together and constantly in each other’s faces.”

And not only is Hera essential as a character, Ben also highlights voice actress Vanessa Marshall for being just as important to Rebels‘ real-life public image as Hera is in the story, and laments that this one-two punch isn’t reflected more in the show’s merchandise:

“Hera remains an enigma, mentioned but never featured, all but invisible outside the context of the show itself.”

Ben suggests that this might change with Season Two; only time will tell.

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In Shrines, Temples, and Tombs, a guest piece by longtime ETE follower John Gauthier, the mysteries of life beyond death as presented in the prequel trilogy are revisited in light of The Clone Wars‘ Lost Missions Yoda arc. Those episodes were not just bonus information, John said, but an essential part of the story:

“With Empire as the precedent, The Clone Wars did the legwork. Fans spent the years and months leading up to Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith speculating about the seemingly inevitable return of Qui-Gon Jinn, but it was The Clone Wars that explained the story – and significance – of his existence beyond death.”

He went on to take the Expanded Universe, and its somewhat more liberal treatment of Force ghosts, into account, concluding that where the Sith historically were able to retain their identities by attaching themselves to places (their own tombs, primarily), for Jedi these connections were instead with individuals. Will this conceit hold up in the new canon, based on what we’ve seen so far? John had a few thoughts on that as well.

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Every six months, once on Eleven-ThirtyEight’s anniversary and once at Christmas, I give the inmates a week off and run five days of the Second Look feature, wherein a highlight particularly interesting pieces; some that maybe didn’t get much attention the first time, and some that I think just warrant extra attention. While our anniversary isn’t technically until July 8th, that’s the week Dark Disciple comes out, so I decided to get this out of the way a little early. Yay, summer!

First up is Shouting Into the Void, by Alexander Gaultier. Partly a response to the volatile gaming industry, Alexander’s message here is twofold: firstly, internet-age fandom doesn’t have as much sway over the movements of its favorite franchises as it might think, and two, that’s not exactly a bad thing:

“Fan reactions are commonly heated, passionate affairs that make political debates look like bastions of civility and compassion by comparison, dominated by knee-jerk reactions and seething personal attacks directed at those they perceive as having wronged them. The human desire to find someone to whom they can attach blame is a strong one: it is unfortunate that, in many cases, due to the strength of their feelings outweighing their knowledge of the creative process, their target is the wrong one.

Remember, Second Look is a daily feature—so come back tomorrow for another piece!

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