(CNN) The following contains spoilers about the "Star Wars Rebels" series finale.

"Star Wars Rebels" came with a built-in conundrum: What happened to these characters, battling against the evil Empire, when the first of the movies, "A New Hope," rolled around several years after the series began?

The DisneyXD animated series resourcefully addressed that in Monday night's 90-minute finale, which left some loose ends but mostly proved an emotionally satisfying payoff to a program that, before Disney ramped up production after acquiring Lucasfilm, staunchly carried the "Star Wars" banner.

Of course, the dirty little secret of the "Star Wars" universe has been that its animated, made-for-TV efforts -- including "Rebels" and before that "Clone Wars" -- have often surpassed the movies, certainly in terms of the clunky aspects of George Lucas' second trilogy. Under the stewardship of Dave Filoni, "Rebels" has inched the ball forward, delicately incorporating higher-profile personalities from that far-away galaxy (Darth Vader, the Emperor, Darth Maul, characters from "Rogue One") while building its own strong core.

In wrapping up the show, Filoni and his team seized upon a facet of "Star Wars" that makes Disney's ambitious expansion of the franchise possible -- namely, that it's a very big galaxy, with room for all sorts of stories in the past, present and future.

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