WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the series finale of Star Wars Rebels, "A Fool's Hope" and "Family Reunion and Farewell," which debuted Monday night on Disney XD.


Hera, Sabine, Zeb, Rex, Kallus, Ryder, Mart, Loth-wolves, even Hondo and his little Ugnaught friend -- each had a crucial r0le to play in the liberation of Lothal from the Galactic Empire. But Star Wars Rebels was always about Ezra Bridger's journey, and in the end it all came down to the young Jedi and his choices.

The final hour of the beloved animated series was about family, and sacrifice, and choosing not the easiest path, but the right one. It was about Kanan's final lesson for Ezra. But, most of all, it was about hope.

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Star Wars Rebels could have very well ended in fire, like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, with much of the Ghost crew and their allies meeting their ultimate fates in defense of Lothal. Instead, co-creator Dave Filoni left the futures of most of the characters up in the air, and perhaps held open the door for whatever comes next.

Ezra Bridger

Ezra Bridger with his hand outstretched in Star Wars: Rebels.

We can quibble about whether the public activities of Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger on Star Wars Rebels jibes with the characterization of the Jedi as an extinct, near-legendary order in Star Wars: A New Hope. But we knew both characters would have to be removed from the playing field by the end of the animated series. For Jarrus, that moment came last week, when he sacrificed his life to save his friends; for Ezra, it was in the finale, when he remained aboard Grand Admiral Thrawn's damaged Star Destroyer as the purrgil ("space whales") whose aid he enlisted made the jump to hyperspace, with them in tow.

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It was part of Ezra's elaborate plan to finally accomplish what he'd so longed for these past four seasons: the liberation of his home world Lothal from the Empire. "Hera, I have to see this through to the end," he said, as his friends pleaded with him from the planet's surface. Later, in a recorded message, he explained, "There were several paths in front me. While this wasn't the one I wanted to take, it's what I had to do." Indeed, it completed Ezra's character arc, took him out of play for the original trilogy, and left open the possibility that he might yet survive, somewhere in a galaxy far, far away. (Filoni insists that he does.) "I couldn't have wished for a better family," he concluded in the message. "I can't wait to come home."

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Sabine Wren

Star Wars Rebels finale

A kindred spirit, Sabine Wren nevertheless struggled to understand what Ezra meant when he told her, "I'm counting on you." As she explains in her narration of the series epilogue, set more than four years later, following the Battle of Endor, she initially believed Ezra meant he was counting on her to protect Lothal. After all, this rag-tag group of Rebels fully expected the Empire to return with an invasion force to retake the planet. But that invasion never came, as Lothal signaled the loosening of the Emperor's grip on the galaxy.

"But one day," she said, "I realized there was more to it, there was something else I was meant to do. Ezra's out there somewhere, and it's time to bring him home." And so Star Wars Rebels ends with Sabine setting off with another beloved character (see below) to find Ezra. It doesn't get much more hopeful than that.

Zeb and Kallus

Star Wars Rebels finale

Imperial security agent turned Rebel spy, Alexsandr Kallus underwent a redemptive arc over the course of Star Wars Rebels, culminating with the revelation that he was the operative code-named Fulcrum. But his participation in the genocide on Lasan, home to Zeb's people the Lasat, hung over Kallus. But that cloud is lifted in the series' epilogue as Sabine recounts that, following the end of the war, Zeb takes his friend "along the secret hyperspace path" to the planet Lira San to meet the Lasat survivors introduced in the Season 2 episode "Legends of the Lasat."

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"It was then that Kallus realized he hadn't destroyed the Lasat people," Sabine said, "and that they were thriving on this new world -- a world where he was welcomed as one of them."

Hera (and Jacen) Syndulla

Star Wars Rebels finale

Although General Syndulla is name-dropped in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and The Ghost is spotted at the Battle of Scarif, Sabine's narration also places Hera at the Battle of Endor, from Return of the Jedi. But Sabine has another, larger surprise.

"By that time there had been a new member added to the crew of The Ghost," she says, "Spectre-Seven, Jacen Syndulla, born to fly, just like his mother. And, well, we all know what his father was like." We do, indeed. Still, we have questions about that ...

Ahsoka Tano

Ahsoka Tano in the Star Wars Rebels finale

When they returned to their own times last week in "A World Between Worlds," Ezra Bridger shouted to Ahsoka Tano, "When you get back, come and find me." It was an odd line that nevertheless held the possibility that the fan-favorite Ahsoka could free herself from the debris of the Sith temple on Malachor in time to, what, save the day in the series finale? It seemed like a cheat, which is part of what made the dialogue so strange.

But in the final scene of Star Wars Rebels, we understand what Ezra really meant: to come find him, wherever he is in the galaxy. And that's what Ahsoka and Sabine set off to do. It hints that, just maybe, the story of Ahsoka and the Ghost crew hasn't ended yet, that -- following the liberation of Lothal and the defeat of the Galactic Empire -- there could be another mission left: to find Ezra Bridger.


Available to stream on Disney XD platforms, Star Wars Rebels stars Freddie Prinze Jr. as Kanan, Vanessa Marshall as Hera, Steve Blum as Zeb, Tiya Sircar as Sabine, Taylor Gray as Ezra, Dee Bradley Baker as Captain Rex, David Oyelowo as Kallus, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Governor Pryce, Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Warwick Davis as Rukh.