Rebels - S4E9 - "Rebel Assault"

There's some significance in the composition of one shot in "Rebel Assault."  After the squad of Rebels on Lothal sees that the assault led by Hera has failed and that all the Rebels ships have been shot down, there's a wide angle view showing both the falling ships and the Rebels helplessly watching them:

The framing isn't level with the horizon, and this skewed perspective matches the unsettled nature of the characters' feelings:  dismay that the attack has failed and uncertainty about what has happened to Hera.

Rebels - S3E16 - "Legacy of Mandalore"

The colors in "Legacy of Mandalore" hold some significance.  The episode starts with Sabine returning to her family home on Krownest where she doesn't receive a warm welcome.  Her ship is shot down, and her mother's first words upon seeing her are, "So, it's true, then.  Put her in a cell; she'll be held for trial."

The environment of Krownest is predominately black and white:

Consequently, Sabine's brightly colored hair and armor really stand out:

This contrast mirrors the characters' relationship.  Sabine doesn't fit in with the palette of Krownest in the same way that she's not fully accepted by her family.

Rebels - S3E11 - "Visions and Voices"

A trivial detail in "Visions and Voices" matches a more significant element in the story.

About five minutes into the episode, after Ezra sees visions of Maul, Kanan has Sabine put a tracking device on Ezra's wrist comm:

Later, after Maul appears on Atollon, makes a deal with Ezra in which each will share the information he saw when they joined the holocrons in "The Holocrons of Fate," and then leaves with him, Kanan and Sabine are able to follow Ezra using this signal.

On Dathomir, Maul tells Ezra that "the only way to access the knowledge we seek is to merge our minds again."  He explains that "I have studied the ways of the Nightsisters and found a spell that suits our needs... to initiate the merge, we, we must each drink this potion."  When Maul drinks, his own wrist comm is plainly visible, and it has the same basic design as Ezra's:

Since they opened the holocrons together in "The Holocrons of Fate," Ezra's and Maul's minds have been linked to a certain degree, and in a small way, the similar design of their wrist comms visually indicates this connection between them.

Rebels - S2E21 - "Twilight of the Apprentice - Part I"

When Ezra first encounters Maul in "Twilight of the Apprentice - Part I," he definitely doesn't trust him.  He draws his lightsaber on him and tells him to "Stay back!"  After Maul says, "You came for the same reason I did, years ago:  you seek knowledge" and explains that he knows how to get into the Sith temple, Ezra agrees to go with him but insists that Maul walk in front of him, apparently so that Ezra can keep an eye on him.

Ezra's feelings toward Maul begin to change after Maul says, "The Sith took everything from me, ripped me from my mother's arms, murdered my brother, used me as a weapon, and then cast me aside, abandoned me."  Ezra replies, "I know how you feel.  The Empire, it took away my home and my mother and my father."  As they approach the door to the temple, Maul claims that the knowledge inside is the key to destroying the Sith, and when he says that he'll share this knowledge with Ezra, Ezra starts walking up the steps in front of Maul:

Ezra keeps Maul in front of him when he first meets him, but after Maul entices him with the knowledge inside the Sith temple, Ezra goes before him.  This change visually indicates that there's a more or less definite point where Ezra starts to trust Maul.

Rebels - S2E19 - "The Forgotten Droid"

There's some slight significance in the composition of a particular shot in "The Forgotten Droid."

Near the beginning of the episode, Chopper abandons The Ghost to steal a leg that would replace his mismatched one and then escapes aboard an Imperial freighter.  Later, he contacts Hera, who's angry about his disobedience.  After she says, "Really?  So you didn't leave The Ghost to go after that leg?" he appears a bit ashamed (doing what is apparently the droid equivalent of scratching his head in an act of discomfort, unwilling to admit the truth).  In this shot, the leg is looming behind him, almost as if weighing on his shoulder in a picture of his guilt:

Rebels - S2E17 - "The Honorable Ones"

At the end of "The Honorable Ones," there's a brief moment that seems to foreshadow the change that Kallus undergoes in season three (taking over the Fulcrum moniker to feed the Rebels information and ultimately defecting to their cause).  Before Zeb returns to The Ghost, he turns and bows to Kallus.  Kallus had been sheltered behind a rock, but he steps out into the sunlight in order to return Zeb's bow.

His coming into the light prefigures the events of season three, as Kallus slowly moves from the darkness of the Empire to the light side embodied by the Rebellion.

Taken an-other way, the sunrise illuminating Kallus's face represents the beginning of his enlightenment.  He eventually starts to understand what the Empire truly stands for.

Rebels - S2E1 - "The Siege of Lothal - Part I"

After a successful rebel mission in "The Siege of Lothal - Part I," there's a meeting on one of the command ships.  Significantly, Kanan is sitting apart from the others:

Shortly after this scene, he complains to Hera about joining a larger rebellion:  "When you and I started together, it was rob from the Empire, give to the needy:  a noble cause.  Now we're gettin' drawn into some kind of military thing, and I don't like it."  The distance between him and the others in this meeting visually indicates his misgivings.

Rebels - S1E6 - "Breaking Ranks"

At the beginning of "Breaking Ranks," there's a brief establishing shot of Lothal City.

The shot contains some visual symmetry (the Imperial facility is centered, and the Star Destroyer on the left is somewhat balanced with the sunset on the right), but the two sides of the shot also exhibit a contrast that illustrates how the Empire's occupation is changing Lothal.

The right side shows a bright city with rolling hills beyond it, but the left side shows a darkened city emitting smoke from Imperial factories.  The Star Destroyer overhead indicates the Imperial oppression, and the sunset with which it's balanced may even represent the fading of the old days of Lothal.

There are episodes later in the series that demonstrate more clearly how the Empire is stripping the planet of its resources ("The Occupation" S4E5 and "Crawler Commandeers" S4E8), but this episode shows it in its early stages.

---&---

Ezra poses as cadet Dev Morgan in order to infiltrate the Imperial facility and acquire a device that will allow The Ghost crew to locate an Imperial shipment containing a Kyber crystal.  During his time there, he befriends fellow cadets Jai Kell and Zare Leonis.  These three contrast with an-other cadet named Oleg in superficial ways that mirror deeper differences in their characters.

Ezra Bridger (even undercover as Dev Morgan), Jai Kell, and Zare Leonis all have first and last names, and their last names highlight their familial connections:  although he's separated from them, Ezra has a strong attachment to his parents, and he recently joined his Rebels family; Jai mentions that his family consists of just him and his mother; and Zare is looking for his sister, who disappeared from the academy.  Oleg's single name seems to indicate that he lacks a family; all he has is the Empire.

Throughout the episode, Ezra, Jai, and Zare frequently take off their helmets or at least open the face panel, but Oleg is never seen without his.  That Oleg remains faceless illustrates that his individuality is being subsumed as he becomes part of the standardized Empire.

Both of these contrasts also match the difference in the characters' ties to the Empire.  Ezra was never truly a cadet; he was only working undercover at the academy.  Jai defects at the end of the episode, after Ezra and Zare explain the true nature of the Empire to him.  While Zare does stay at the academy, he does so only to continue searching for his sister, not because of any true allegiance.  Oleg, on the other hand, was always loyal to the Empire.

---&---

Near the end of the episode, the Inquisitor reviews the events that happened at the academy.  He looks at images of Jai and Ezra and says, "I do not know this boy [Jai], but this one [Ezra] I know."  His comment has a chiastic structure, which emphasizes these opposites:

I do not know

this boy,

but this one

I know.

Rebels - S1E5 - "Rise of the Old Masters"

After the Ghost crew hears Senator Gall Trayvis's broadcast claiming that "one of the Republic's greatest peacekeepers, Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, is alive," Kanan says that "she was a great Jedi master, brave, compassionate, disciplined" and tells Ezra that "she'd made an excellent teacher for you."  From the moment she's introduced, Luminara is presented almost as the epitome of the Republic-era Jedi, but in this time period (the "dark times" of the Empire, as Obi-Wan describes it in A New Hope), she's more suited for this idealization than some other Jedi.  Luminara's name is related to lumen (gen. luminis), the Latin word for light, so in a way, she's the embodiment of the light side of the Force and acts as a symbol of the old Jedi order.

Rebels - S4E15 - "Family Reunion - And Farewell"

7:07 - Vizago (after Mart tells him and Wolffe that Ezra gave him a special mission):  "What are you talking about?"  This line appears three times in A New Hope:  twice, C-3PO asks R2-D2, "What are you talking about?" [6:51 and 9:47], and later, in response to Luke's urge to rescue Leia, Han asks, "What are you talkin' about?" [1:11:03].  In Attack of the Clones, Anakin also asks Padmé, "What are you talking about?" [1:43:07].

24:52 - Rex (after Chopper is shocked):  "Great.  Now what?"  Han also wonders, "Now what!?" during Princess Leia's rescue in A New Hope [1:18:11].

29:41 - Ezra (to the Emperor):  "You're wrong.  I have a family; I don't need anything from you."  In Return of the Jedi, Luke also says, "You're wrong" to the Emperor, after the Emperor tells him that Vader and soon Luke himself cannot be turned from the darkside [1:31:52].

31:32 - Hera:  "Shields up!"  It's unclear whether this is a statement or a command, but both appear in The Phantom Menace.  The captain of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan's ship shouts it as a command [5:11], and Anakin says it as a comment [2:02:18].

32:06 - Sabine (smacking him):  "Chop, wake up!"  In A New Hope, C-3PO pushes R2-D2 and tells him, "Wake up.  Wake up!" after the Jawas' sandcrawler stops [15:53], and in The Empire Strikes Back, Han similarly hits a control panel on the Millennium Falcon to get it working again [35:07].

35:05 - Ezra (after Thrawn says, "Whatever happens next happens to both of us"):  "That's the idea."  According to the subtitles, Greedo also says this in A New Hope; after Han says, "Over my dead body," Greedo replies in Huttese, "That's the idea" [50:44].

36:42 - Ezra (to the rest of the Rebels):  "And remember:  The Force will be with you always."  Through the Force, Obi-Wan says the same thing to Luke near the end of A New Hope:  "Remember:  the Force will be with you always" [1:57:24].

Rebels - S4E14 - "A Fool's Hope"

1:48 - Rex (after Wolffe says Rebel command didn't send a briefing):  "That's because, old friend, this mission isn't for the Rebellion."

Hera:  "It's for Ezra.  We are liberating his home, and we need your help, all of you."

First, the phrase "old friend" is also used in Attack of the Clones (where Palpatine suggests "an old friend, like Master Kenobi" to protect Padmé [6:34] and Count Dooku calls Mace Windu "my old Jedi friend" [1:50:24] and just "old friend" [1:56:05]), in Revenge of the Sith (where Obi-Wan says, "Goodbye, old friend" to Anakin as he leaves for Utapau [51:13] and Yoda refers to Qui-Gon as "an old friend" [2:09:56]), in A New Hope (where Leia sarcastically says, "We, uh, ran into some old friends" when Han asks her and Luke where they've been [1:31:33]), in The Empire Strikes Back (where Yoda says that through the Force, Luke will see "Old friends long gone" [1:17:05]), and in Return of the Jedi (where Luke says, "I have a promise to keep to an old friend" [37:37] and Han calls C-3PO "an old friend of mine" [1:11:53]).

Second, variations of "we need your help" appear in The Phantom Menace (Queen Amidala tells Jar Jar, "I need your help" [1:37:55]), Revenge of the Sith (Obi-Wan says, "Padmé, I need your help" [1:38:44]); and A New Hope (Obi-Wan says, "I need your help, Luke.  She [Leia] needs your help." [36:03]).

2:07 - Hondo (after Wolffe says, "Those are difficult odds"):  "I agree, but that boy has spirit."  In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin says, "I agree" twice (once after Obi-Wan says that Anakin is not helping by firing at the buzz droids on his fighter:  "I agree, bad idea" [6:04] and once after Palpatine explains that the Jedi would kill the two of them and the senators [1:17:36]).  Yoda also says it twice (once to Ki-Adi-Mundi's suggestion that it's Obi-Wan who should confront Grievous [49:09] and once to Obi-Wan's suggestion to turn off the retreat message coming from the Jedi temple [1:30:50]).

4:02 - Imperial officer (to Governor Pryce):  "We've scanned the outer reaches, and we found the remains of several small encampments, but no signs of the Rebels' current whereabouts."  In A New Hope, an Imperial officer gives a similar briefing to Tarkin:  "Our scout ships have reached Dantooine.  They found the remains of a Rebel base, but they estimate that it has been deserted for some time." [1:02:46]

8:30 - Hera (to Rex):  "Coming up on Lothal."  In A New Hope, Han uses the same expression when he says, "Looks like we're coming up on Alderaan" [1:02:27].

11:03 - Ezra (wondering out loud):  "Hera, where are you?"  The same sort of situation occurs near the end of A New Hope, where Luke exclaims, "Blast it, Biggs, where are you?" [1:49:09].

11:13 - Hondo (to Rex):  "Patience, patience, my friend."  Palpatine says basically the same thing to Vader in Return of the Jedi:  "Patience, my friend" [38:57].

12:56 - Zeb (about the stormtroopers):  "There's too many!"  A rebel pilot says the same thing in Return of the Jedi (referring to TIE fighters):  "There's too many of them" [1:35:13].

14:23 - Ruhk (to Zeb and Ezra):  "Drop your weapons."  A battle droid also says this to Obi-Wan and Anakin in Revenge of the Sith [9:05].

15:08 - Governor Pryce (to Ryder):  "Stand up, my old friend."  See above, 1:48.

19:04 - Hondo (in the nosegun of The Ghost):  "I got him!  I got him!"  He actually doesn't hit anything, but this is also what Luke says after successfully shooting down one of the Imperial sentry ships in A New Hope:  "Got him!  I got him! [1:35:25]

Rebels - S4E13 - "A World Between Worlds"

9:09 - Ahsoka (to Ezra, about Morai):  "She's an old friend."  The phrase "old friend" is also used in Attack of the Clones (where Palpatine suggests "an old friend, like Master Kenobi" to protect Padmé [6:34] and Count Dooku calls Mace Windu "my old Jedi friend" [1:50:24] and just "old friend" [1:56:05]), in Revenge of the Sith (where Obi-Wan says, "Goodbye, old friend" to Anakin as he leaves for Utapau [51:13] and Yoda refers to Qui-Gon as "an old friend" [2:09:56]), in A New Hope (where Leia sarcastically says, "We, uh, ran into some old friends" when Han asks her and Luke where they've been [1:31:33]), in The Empire Strikes Back (where Yoda says that through the Force, Luke will see "Old friends long gone" [1:17:05]), and in Return of the Jedi (where Luke says, "I have a promise to keep to an old friend" [37:37] and Han calls C-3PO "an old friend of mine" [1:11:53]).

11:59 - Ezra (to Ahsoka):  "I know what I'm doing."  This is also Han's claim to Chewbacca in A New Hope:  "I know what I'm doin'" [1:42:25].

12:05 - Ahsoka (after Ezra says he can stop Kanan from dying):  "You don't know that."  Obi-Wan also says this in The Empire Strikes Back, after Luke claims that "Han and Leia will die if I don't [go to help them]" [1:23:09].

15:22 - Sabine (to Minister Hydan before the mobile commander center is upended):  "Sorry about the mess."  Han tells Wuher this after shooting Greedo in A New Hope [51:04].

15:58 - Ezra (to Ahsoka):  "Are you alright?"  In The Phantom Menace, Anakin asks Qui-Gon, "Are you alright?" [1:17:31].  In Attack of the Clones, Padmé asks Anakin, "Ani, are you alright?" [50:02], and later a clone trooper asks Padmé, "Are you alright?" [2:05:54].  In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin asks the Chancellor, "Are you alright?"[11:49], and a bit later, Mace Windu asks him, "Chancellor Palpatine, are you alright?" [24:53].  Padmé also asks Anakin, "Are you alright?" [1:27:59].  In A New Hope, Luke asks Obi-Wan this [59:16] and Biggs asks Luke [1:46:44], and in The Empire Strikes Back, Luke asks, "Rogue Two, are you alright?" [30:31].  Luke also asks Han, "Are you alright?" when they're captured by Jabba in Return of the Jedi [28:31].

17:11 - Ahsoka (promising to find Ezra):  "I will; I promise."  In The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan tells Anakin, "You will be a Jedi; I promise" [2:07:43], and in Revenge of the Sith, Padmé tells Anakin, "I'm not gonna die in childbirth, Ani; I promise you," and he replies, "No, I promise you" [53:46].  Later, Anakin also tells her, "Things will be different; I promise" [1:29:13].

19:21 - Hera:  "Chopper, get us outta here."  In A New Hope, Han also says this (to Chewbacca):  "Chewie, get us outta here!" [55:26].

20:11 - Kanan:  "The Force will be with you always."  Through the Force, Obi-Wan says the same thing to Luke near the end of A New Hope:  "Remember:  the Force will be with you always" [1:57:24].