Star Wars Rebels: Dave Filoni Discusses Importance of Bendu and The Owls

One of the enduring mysteries of this season of Star Wars Rebels has been that of the Bendu, and those little “Force owls,” the Convorees, that seem to hang around him. To some surprise, some of those Convorees were even watching when Sabine was training to fight with the Darksaber in “Trials of the Darksaber,” something many fans sought significance in. In this case, though, it seems the Convorees aren’t much more than just owls.

“I don’t want to take away any of the magic,” EP Dave Filoni said with a laugh to ComicBook.com. “When [Melchior] Zwyer was directing that episode and we had everything figured out and all the staging, he put some of those birds in the foreground, and I was like, ‘Oh, you know every time we do that everybody thinks it means something, right?’”

Zwyer argued that the shot looked better with the birds in it, and Filoni figured out a reason.

“I was like, ‘Well, we could leave them in there…’ I think that it’s just, for me, a watchfulness, and they are a continuous connection to the Force and nature.”

The Convorees and their need to be around the action helps to show “the Force exists whther the Jedi or Sith or anyone exists or not. They are practitioners of the Force, they don’t have sole dominion over it,” he said. “We ahve this owl flying around – this is the worst answer, but some of the owls are just owls. Then one of them in particular is not just a bird.”

As for the Bendu, he showed up in the episode, as well. The extremely powerful Force user, “a different type of being who’s connected to the Force,” was basically in the shot “because they are out where he lives.” The Bendu was also curious, specifically because Sabine does not have any strong connections to the Force.

“I thought that he would just be a bit curious about it. I don’t think Bendu knows what the Jedi are up to. I think he wonders “Why are they bothering to train her?” It’s strange to him because she doesn’t have a strong connection to the Force. He wouldn’t know that, but he wouldn’t really want to get involved. I think people keep trying to prescribe a Yoda-like influence to Bendu, and he’s not like Yoda. Yoda was Jedi who was on very one side of the fight and wanted to help fight and was a part of the politics and everything,” Filoni explained. “Bendu was just out there sleeping in the galaxy and got woken up because Kanan and Ezra bring all their turmoil to this planet. He’s like, ‘Why are you bothering me still? I just want to rest and be sleeping.’ He doesn’t want to take part in their struggle and in their chaos. He likes balance, and he likes neutrality.”

“So I think he’s curious about Sabine, and then he probably forgets about her, but I think it’s interest to know that he’s just there, and it’s really nothing more than that sometimes.”

So owls are just owls, except when they’re not, and Bendu imparts wisdom when it amuses him, but otherwise doesn’t have a horse in the race.

Star Wars Rebels airs Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on Disney XD.

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