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Continuity & Analysis

Star Wars: Rebels - Ghosts of Geonosis (2017) [S3E12-13]
After the legendary Saw Gerrera and his rebel squad go missing on Geonosis,
the Ghost crew is sent in to investigate.




CONTINUITY
These two episodes are a single story about Geonosis and Saw Gerrera. Geonosis is the only world seen in these episodes:

This story take place in the middle of 7975 (2 BBY). Ezra has now been Kanan's apprentice for more than two and a half years.

- Senator Organa was last seen slightly more than 2 years earlier in 'Fire Across the Galaxy' (S1E15).

- Saw Gerrera was last seen 3 years earlier in Andor 'Daughter of Ferrix' (S1E11). At that time, he was a sometime associate of the small
and decentralized rebel movement, having at least a limited connection to Mon Mothma's intelligence network.


- Cycles are a unit of time used in SW which have not yet been associated with any other time measurement used, such as rotations, years,
days, hours, or minutes. Like rotations, cycles may be a system-relative term which can differ based on the rotational rate of a world.

- Shields can be overpowered by continual weapons fire of sufficient strength. Shields need to be deactivated to be recharged, however
if their productive strength is greater than that of the energy being fired into it, the shield will not degrade. If the energy being fired
at a shield is greater than its productive energy, that which it is putting out moment to moment to generate the energy screen,
than the shield will gradually be depleted and eventually collapse. This kind of overload may also damage the generator.
Main Article: Shields, Deflectors, and Ray Shields

- Klik-Klak draws a "circle inside of a circle", which Kanan speculates "could be the rings around Geonosis", but also suggested the possibility
that he knew something about the Death Star project. Based on 'The Honorable Ones' (S2E17) and other material, the Empire had
constructed large components for the Death Star over Geonosis, probably at least the main weapon assembly. Geonosian Industries
scientists were responsible for the design of the weapon, and it is likely their facilities and expertise were somehow involved. Later it
is revealed that this is supposed to be a drawing of the Imperial symbol from poison containers. Assuming that is what the drawing
was, there is no need to account for why Klik-Klak knows the shape of complete the Death Star, unless he was directly involved.

- Captain Brunson is the commander of a light cruiser which is conducting standard patrols in the Arkanis Sector. She wears a black uniform,
which is unusual for a Navy officer, especially a command-level officer. Black uniforms are ordinarily worn by security, some classes of
army soldiers or operations staff, military intelligence, naval infantry, and pilots. They are also the color of ISB field uniforms. The Navy
usually wears olive or grey. The use of a black uniform suggested the possibility that Brunson may be in Navy Intelligence, as Brom Titus
was an Army Intelligence officer seen to wear black, and was also in command of a ship. This is not supported by supplementary material,
which maintains she is an officer of the regular Navy. This is not totally inconsistent, as there is at least one officer in Episode VI who
has been traditionally identified as part of the regular Navy and who wears a black uniform. Subsequent disney-era material has shown
an additional Navy captain leading a sector patrol who wore a black uniform, thus it is likely they will do so again the future.
Main Article: Ranks and Rank Insignia


SW material, including that produced by Lucas, has a horrible track record concerning rank insignia continuity, however
this series truly set a new standard for error which has become all too common in disney-era material. As always, this is
either due to failure of attention to detail, lack of caring, or some combination of both. There is no better example of this
than Imperial officer 'Sideburns', who makes his second of seven appearances in this episode as one of Captain Brunson's
subordinates. Like the template of Lt. Lyste, this officer is an animation template that is reused as other officers in other
episodes to save on production costs. The creators assume that few will notice and few will care, which is true, but is also
an indication of lack of interest in producing the high-level content which makes something worthy of being called SW.
What makes 'Sideburns' a continuity error is not his reappearance, but his rank insignia plaque. Officers who wear a block
insignia with four rows across are admiralty in the navy, or generals in the army, and they certainly do not take orders
from a Captain. Brunson is wearing a block-style insignia with three rows across, one of the correct insignia for a Navy
Captain. The fact that they animated one of her subordinates as having more tiles than she does shows that they did
not consider the implications of an insignia plaque, and no one at Lucasfilm cared or knew to correct this. This officer
will always appear with the same insignia, and only in some of his appearances could it possibly make sense.
Main Article: Ranks and Rank Insignia


- Saw Gerrera and his forces are clearly working directly with the still clandestine Rebel Alliance at this point, having more fully integrated
the organization from when he was last seen. This is obviously prior to his break with the Alliance over his "being a little extreme."
Saw reveals here that he feels the Jedi's methods are "soft", and that "we lost the last war because of you", referring to Clone
Wars, suggesting that "our enemy shows no mercy. Neither can we." His motivations and reasoning for this policy is "I lost my
sister to the Separatists and my planet to the Empire. I'm fighting for you and everyone else not to lose what they've got,
and I won't apologize for how I do it." The Rebels as a necessity must band together forces with a wide variety of motivations
and approaches to opposing the Empire. At this point, Saw hasn't crossed any red lines, and they need all the help they can get.

ANALYSIS
Geonosis was one of Sidious' most significant pawns in his plans for the galaxy, and the Geonosians paid a heavy price for being so helpful
to him. They were subject to two devastating planetary invasions by the Republic, and suffered further under military occupation. Their
infrastructure was damaged, their population depleted, and their industrial interests in ruins, Geonosis was totally reliant on the Empire
which held them at gunpoint for their role as a leading Separatist planet. The Empire took advantage of this position to put their advanced
engineering skills to work on the construction of the Death Star station which their scientists had designed. Sidious introduced the concept
of the main weapon to them through Dooku, but it was Geonosian Industries whose technical expertise had produced a theoretically sound
design. This company was in a ruinous state, and with the Techno Union dissolved by the Empire, it was a simple matter for the Empire to take
direct control of their scientists, engineers, and facilities. Having completed the construction of Death Star components in orbit, the Empire
set about erasing all evidence of their activity, including removing the massive orbital assembly facilities. The subsequent genocide of
the planet's population was carried out to silence the Geonosians once and for all. Their readiness to seize a greater destiny in the galaxy led
their leaders into an alliance with the Sith which the Sith took full advantage of, using them as arms suppliers, weapon designers, political
symbols, cannon fodder, and laborers. Having finally used Geonosis up, the Geonosians were rewarded for being so useful by being put
to death for knowing too much. Potential security leaks about the Death Star aside, like the Kaminoans, some Geonosians knew too much
about the political machinations which shaped the galaxy for the Emperor's comfort. Rather than sort out potential risks, the Empire has
no problem simply exterminating an entire race which it considers unimportant and has a history of isolationism and rebellious activity.
Despite the horrific slaughter of the majority of the Geonosian population, survivors underground may one day rebuild their civilization.

The Empire has good reason to believe they will get away with the genocide on Geonosis. This planet was under a strict military occupation
and Imperial security quarantine. Any regular traffic to and from the planet was filtered out or put at end to by the Empire over the years
one way or another. This was largely to facilitate their construction of Death Star material, which necessitated controlling traffic in and out
of the system. The Geonosians were not known as an overly hospitable people, and their planet is not an ideal place for most to visit. Their
prior time as a political heavyweight ended with the Clone Wars, and the planet and their people had faded into relative obscurity under
Imperial rule. Nevertheless, it was unlikely that the apparent disappearance of the Geonosian people would go unnoticed forever. Standard
Imperial practice would be to deny involvement and if discovered would justify it as a legitimate security response, however this would not
be necessary in this case due to the means the Empire used and the nature of Geonosian life. As underground dwellers, the confined spaces
in which they lived made the use of poison gas against them highly effective, and left no visible evidence near the surface and few survivors
to tell the tale. The Empire is probably less concerned about the potential political fallout of the genocide than that if the Senate learned
about the Death Star before it became operational. The Senate may be mostly full of power-seeking delegates who have been enriched by
the Empire, but despite their usual deference to Palpatine they would certainly take great issue with the open extermination of a planet's
civilian population. At the same time, even the Senate does not risk opposing Palpatine without strong evidence, and without the recovery
of the poison gas canisters, testimony alone "will not be enough to convince the Senate of the Empire's atrocities." The Empire's atrocities
are becoming more common and more brazen at this point in the Imperial program. Although the Senate will not act in most cases, this
is speeding the growth and formation of the Rebellion. Geonosis only serves to demonstrate what submitting to the Empire will get you.


FURTHER ANALYSIS
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