Aboard the star commuter shuttle departing Lothal is a background extra with a costume design inspired by the early Jedi General character illustrated by Ralph McQuarrie during the development of the original Star Wars story.

Paul Reubens (known to many as Pee Wee Herman) provides the voice of the RX-24 pilot droid, a nod to his famous role as Rex, the original Star Tours pilot. Lurking in the back of the star commuter shuttle is a Lothal protocol droid, which was based on early Ralph McQuarrie art of C-3PO. Fittingly, this droid and C-3PO share a frame with R2-D2 and Chopper.

Galactically speaking, Garel is “next door” to Lothal. They are separated by a few minutes’ worth of hyperspace journey. The star commuter route connecting both worlds is a commonly traveled one for citizens of both planets.

Though it may seem counterintuitive to think of R2-D2 and C-3PO as “Imperial droids” (which is what Kanan calls them), they are indeed in the service of the Imperial Senate.

The fact that the Empire has to surreptitiously acquire ion disruptors that were banned by the Senate is indicative of the era -- in Episode IV, the Empire was careful in its capture of Princess Leia for fear of drawing the Senate’s attention.

The final shot of Bail Organa inserting a data card in R2-D2 is framed in a way that calls back to the shot of Princess Leia inserting a card into R2-D2 in Episode IV.