Hello I'm Going To Watch All of Star Wars

[CaptainWacky]

Yeah that Lastat episode was pretty bad and ultimately pointless since finding a whole planet of his own (thought to be extinct) people didn't seem to change Zeb at all...and the two Lastat characters were really annoying.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 215 - The Call

Okay, so, the Ghost is running low on fuel meaning everyone has to survive in near-freezing temperatures, and they have to try and find a nearby mining colony from which they can steal more fuel. This is a pretty good set-up! It shows the rebels low on resources and pretty desperate, reinforcing that they don't necessarily always have everything they need. This is all going fine until... a group of space whales turn up???

Okay, they're called "purrgil" but they're space whales. Whales in space. Hera, for reasons never explained, doesn't like them at all. But Ezra has his special animal-loving force powers so of course he knows that they're really friendly and tells dumb Hera that she's wrong! Since we've never heard of these creatures before, and have really no idea why Hera doesn't like them, this conflict feels totally forced.

Luckily the space whales lead the Ghost to the mining station they were looking for! Because they're just so nice (ISN'T HERA DUMB??)!

They then form a plan to steal the fuel which, obviously involves blowing up a lot of the base. Ezra objects to this because in doing so it will hurt the space whales, who are feeding in that area. He doesn't say this as Sabine is telling everyone the plan, of course, he waits until they're on the station and in the middle of a firefight to tell everyone what they're doing is bad and wrong. Because he wasn't paying attention earlier. That's literally the explanation they use!

Ezra falls off the station but gets rescued by the space whales because they're friends now blah blah blah this is really dumb. Like, actually stupid, moreso than last episode. The episode ends with Kanan and Ezra standing on top of the Ghost in the vacuum of space wearing nothing but a helmet.

How are they alive? Like, sure, Star Wars is space-fantasy and doesn't necessarily confirm to all the laws of science but we've seen people in space suits before. We know they need them to survive in space, so what the hell? How are they breathing, those helmets don't have an air supply? What is even going on?

To make the episode somehow even dumber the space whales all enter hyperspace because fuck it they can just do that now I guess.

What... what... what is this episode? At best it's a totally forgettable adventure for the crew of the Ghost, and at worst it's an actively stupid piece of nonsense.

I guess there are some good things about this episode, but they're all on the design side rather than the story side. I like the yellow TIEs used by the mining guild, they look cool.

But, uh, yeah. This might actually be the worst episode of Rebels. Fucking space whales.


Episode 216 - Homecoming

As this is the season for character development stories, we're here again with another Hera focused episode! But while "Wings of the Master" was more an episode that happened to feature Hera a lot, now we have an actual episode that's actually about Hera as a character.

The Rebels are in dire need of somewhere to hold and repair their ships and, wouldn't you know it, a giant Imperial Carrier is currently in orbit around Hera's homeworld of Ryloth, where the Rebel cell is lead by... her dad!

Hey, we actually know her dad from waaaaaayyyyyy back at the end of the first season of The Clone Wars! Back then he was worried about working with Republic as he thought they'd never remove their trooper from Ryloth once they had landed... and he was right! The Republic turned into the Empire and started selling Twi'Leks into slavery.

Instead of focusing on the fight against the Empire, the main conflict of the episode is actually between Hera and her father. Hera wants to capture the Imperial Carrier to help the Rebellion, whereas Cham wants to destroy it above Ryloth so that all his people can see. The fact that the episode is about two different rebel ideologies instead of straight good vs. evil is what makes it interesting, especially since that conflict not only comes in the form of a father/daughter relationship, but between two characters who are already established. If Hera's dad were a totally new character, his differences in opinion with Hera could have come across as forced, as if he only disagrees with her so that there is conflict in the episode. Instead, Cham as we see him here is extremely consistent to the character we saw in the Clone Wars, specifically how he's more interested in the safety and morale of the people of Ryloth than he is in the bigger picture (which includes his daughter).

The scene where Hera confronts her father about why she left Ryloth because of how he couldn't see that larger picture is especially well done, with Hera actually slipping into her natural French Ryloth accent during her heated argument with her father. We also get a quick bit of Chopper backstory here, too, where he learn that Hera found him on Ryloth during the Clone Wars, meaning that Chopper must have been part of the attack we saw back in that show.

But it's not only Cham who's returning from Clone Wars, he also brings one of his top soldiers... Numa?! Yes, the young girl befriended by Waxer and Boil back in the Clone Wars is back, and she's a full rebel now. She even wears old clone armour in memory of her Clone friends.

The fact that we know characters like Numa makes it all the worse when Cham and his people turn on the crew of the Ghost and try to destroy the carrier in the middle of the mission. Again, if these had been random new characters it would not have had such of an impact, but these are characters we know - we don't want to see our heroes fight Numa, she was great!

Despite the fact that this episode centres on Hera and her father, it's actually a very well balanced episode. Kanan, Ezra, Sabine and Chopper all get stuff to do (Zeb is sort of there), but it never feels like it's taking away from the story. Plus, although the resolution between Hera and Cham does feel a little rushed, it doesn't seem forced.

There's one thing that's sort of frustrating about this episode which is that I wish they'd just come out and make Kanan and Hera an actual couple like they so obviously are. Not only does Kanan do the whole "nervous as he's about to meet his girlfriend's dad" thing but he very obviously knows Hera well and has a deep emotion connection to her. THEY'RE OBVIOUSLY FUCKING, DISNEY, JUST TELL US.

This right here? A much better episode. It does really well with the main character story, but surrounds it with an exciting action story which gives most of our characters things to do and features some actually really interesting moral questions. Hera actually feels like a much more interesting character after this episode, simply because we know more about where she came from and why she is where she is at the moment.


Episode 217 - The Honorable Ones

You know those episodes of TV shows where one of the good guys and one of the bad guys get stranded together and learn to become friends?

Well, this is that. Done!














Okay, so while it is basically just that premise, there is more to it than that.

The episode starts with the Ghost going to Geonosis on a tip from Rebel intelligence, and they soon discover that something massive was built in it's orbit... and that all the Geonosians are gone!

Hmmmm, the Empire was building something massive around Geonosis.

What COULD it be?

What
Could
It
Beeeee?

Anyway, this is all just an excuse to have the Ghost land on one of the construction platforms and Agent Kallus appear out of nowhere and say that it was all a trap, and have him and Zeb crash in an escape pod onto one of Geonosis' moons while the Ghost escapes (and to the episode's credit the escape sequence is actually pretty great!).

The show has established why Zeb and Kallus specifically are enemies - Kallus was a part of the Empire's attack on Lasan that killed Zeb's people, to the point where he has a bo-rifle like Zeb. And this episode does go into that, with varying degrees of success. It turns out that the bo-rifle Kallus has was not taken as a trophy, but was given to him by one of the Lasat that he killed as part of a tradition of giving your weapons to a superior enemy. This feels very much like a retcon that feels out of place, like they realised Kallus was carrying around a trophy from the genoside he was a part of and had to think of a way that it doesn't make him an irredeemable monster.

The episode does do a lot better with other part's of Kallus character. We see that he actually regrets what happened on Lasan, but more over we find out that he actually had an early encounter with a violent rebel cell early on in his career that made him hate all rebels. While this is a nice bit of characterisation on it's own, and a reminder that not all Rebels are as nice as the Ghost, it gets a nice bit of extra meaning when he says that this all took place on Onderon, under the command of Saw Gerrera. From what we will see in Rogue One (and Rebels?) this fits Saw's style of Rebellion.

All this character building takes place around Kallus and Zeb trying to escape from a cave of monsters which, sure, the episode can't just be them talking to each other so they might as well do that. They do make a nice odd pairing working together, and it lets both of the characters have moments where they spare the other.

The episode really hits it home when they both get rescued - Zeb is found by the crew of the Ghost who were desperatly searching for him, but when Kallus arrives back on the Star Destroyer no one gives a shit that he's even there. You really feel sorry for Kallus, who has obviously just realised that, hey, maybe the Empire are the bad guys?

While this might on the face of it seem like a Zeb episode, it's really an Agent Kallus episode. It's actually quite impressive how within one episode Kallus goes from being a full-on Imperial to suddenly starting to realise that he's on his own surrounded by murderers, and the episode mostly pulls it off! There's nothing new or groundbreaking about what this episode doing, but it pulls off an old concept well and fleshes out one of the major villains in a good way.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Space whale episode was shit. Other two were good but I was definitely at peak "WHERE THE FUCK IS AHSOKA?" level by this point.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Space whale episode was shit. Other two were good but I was definitely at peak "WHERE THE FUCK IS AHSOKA?" level by this point.

Well you didn't have to wait long!


Episode 218 - Shroud of Darkness

After almost being killed by Inquisitors again, Ezra and Kanan go to meet Ahsoka. They find Ahsoka watching old holorecordings of Anakin and MY CLONE WARS FEELS.

Not just because it's Anakin, but because it's Matt Lanter Anakin - the best Anakin, the Anakin who was master to Ahsoka! Ahsoka goes on to tell Ezra about how great Anakin was, not just an amazing fighter but a kind and loyal person as well. Had the only Anakin we'd seen by this point been Hayden Christensen then this would be a terrible description, but thanks to all the work Clone Wars did on Anakin's character we absolutely understand why Ahsoka says what she does. Obviously there was a darker side to Anakin, but it makes sense that Ahsoka would only remember him for his best qualities.

The three go to the Jedi temple on Lothal, that we last saw in "Path of the Jedi". However now they are able to find a new entrance which lets them explore a new part of the temple. Each character has their own separate vision

Kanan sees a dojo at the old Jedi Temple on Coruscant, where he faces against one of the Temple Guards. The Guard tells Kanan that Ezra is very close to the Dark Side, and that fighting will only make him fall. Kanan decides to respond to that information by fighting the guard...

It's only when he stops fighting, and realises that the only thing he can do is train Ezra as well as he can, and let fate decide what happens, that the Guard revels himself to be none other than The Grand Inquisitor (although really it was very obvious because he sounded exactly like Jason Issacs). He even knights Kanan, revealing the the Grant Inquisitor himself was once a Jedi Knight (specifically, although it's never said in the episode, a temple guard).

Much like last time, Ezra's vision has him speak to Yoda - but he can see him this time! And OH MY GOD does Yoda look ugly in the Rebels art style.

What's interesting here is that Yoda tells Ezra much the same thing that the Inquisitor tells Kanan - that fighting will only make things worse. But we actually get to see Yoda directly talk about the fact that this was the mistake he made when the Clone Wars started. This is really the only time we've seen a post-Clone Wars Yoda after the prequels were made, so it's the only opportunity we've had to see him talk about those events specifically. The Yoda we see here is very obviously one who has learnt the lessons of the final Yoda-arc in Clone Wars, and realises that it was the Jedi's own fear that caused them to fight in the Clone Wars, which is what corrupted them and let them get totally destroyed. Hey it's almost as if the Jedi weren't supposed to be totally morally right during the prequels!

I wonder how much of Yoda's advice to Ezra about not fighting is based around the fact that Yoda knows that Ezra is not the one to destroy the Sith, and that it's actually Luke who needs to do this, but that time isn't here yet.

Ezra doesn't seem to actually listen to any of this advice, because as far as he's concerned fighting is the best way to do anything. The only thing he really takes away from Yoda is that they need to go to a planet called Malachor.

Compared to the other character's visions, Ahsoka's is not as complex. She sees Anakin, who blames Ahsoka for leaving him just when he needed her most. Again, the fact that it's Matt Lanter's voice who is accusing Ahsoka is the worst part, because we've had 5 seasons of these two characters being mentor and student, and friends. It's also interesting to think what would have happened if Ahsoka hadn't had left - would she have been able to stop Anakin from falling to the dark side?

Ultimately, Ahsoka is confronted with something she already suspected - that Anakin is Darth Vader.

At this point, it's clear Ahsoka blames herself for this as she just wasn't there when it happened.

Unfortunately their whole vision party is interrupted by the Inquisitors, and they just manage to escape the temple in time. We even get a quick cameo by Vader himself at the end, very happy that the temple has been found.

As a character and lore based episode, this one is pretty good. There's no great reveals (to the audience, at least) but it does help solidify some ideas about Yoda and how he feels about the Clone Wars. Although given the least amount of time in the episode, Ahsoka coming to terms with what has happened to Anakin is easily the most important thing that happens in it. We see Ahsoka's guilt at leaving Anakin (this is really the first opportunity to explore how she feels about leaving at the end of Season 5),and in doing so we pick up on character interactions and plot threads that tie in more with what we saw in The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith than anything in Rebels. In a way, it kind of feels like the main Star Wars plot - that of Anakin Skywalker - has been picked up again after having 20-or-so episodes about a whole bunch of other people.


Episode 219 - The Forgotten Droid

Well, it seems like every character in the Ghost crew has had at least one episode about themselves this season, and now - finally - it's Chopper's turn!

While looking after the Ghost while the others are on a mission, Chopper spots a replacement leg that's perfect for him at a nearby droid shop.

Unfortunately, as he was stuck arguing with the shopkeeper the Ghost leaves the planet without him! Stowing away on an imperial cargo ship, Chopper makes a new droid friend, hijacks the ship and saves the Rebel fleet. It's fun!

But let's talk about what this episode is really about: That being a droid in the Star Wars universe sucks. Both of the droids in this episode - Chopper and the imperial droid AP-5 - are mistreated because of who they are. Chopper is made fun of by Zeb and Ezra, as they have been doing constantly throughout the series, and when Chopper tells the shopkeeper that he's on his own that is totally dismissed, because the idea of an independent droid without a master is just absurd to him.

AP-5, meanwhile, served in the Clone Wars as a navigation droid, but is now stuck as a manifest droid on a freighter and treated like shit by everyone on board. He's probably older and more experienced than most of the crew of that ship, but they just ignore him as another thing.

This is something that's shown all throughout Star Wars - the battle droids in The Clone Wars are obviously seen as 'lesser' than the Clones, even to the Separatist commanders, even though they show independent thought and fear of death. Heck, the first act is Star Wars is told entirely from the point of view of two droids and during that time they're kidnapped, sold at a slave auction and then refused entry into a bar for who they are.

There are a couple of people who see droids as people, Anakin and Ahsoka obviously cared about R2, and Hera does the same for Chopper

So there's really a great sense of catharsis seeing Chopper totally wreck everyone on the cargo ship and save the entire Rebel fleet and free a new droid friend. I don't want to say "The Forgotten Droid is the Django Unchained of Star Wars" (because it's really not) but it's something at least.

Okay, for reals, this is a fun episode that allows us to see things from a droid perspective and lets Chopper to be an asshole to people who are assholes to him.

AP-5 is a nice new character. He's basically Alan Rickman, The Droid, but that works (and isn't too Marvin). He and Chopper get to bond over both being veterans of the Clone Wars that no one cares about any more. Throughout this entire season the Rebels have been trying to find a new planet to make a base - it's even why they found Rex! - and this guy solves that problem in about a minute. He even dies trying to transmit the coordinates!

I mean, yeah, he gets better, but still!

Like all the good character-based episodes this season, this one works because it does a lot more than just deal out backstory. It lets us see things from that character's perspective and pushes the main season-long plot ahead at the same time. It's a much lighter episode than we've had for a while, but I think that's needed right now since we just had an episode about heavy plot stuff and will soon have even more episodes about heavy plot stuff.

I LIKED IT OKAY.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I didn't. Like half the episode was just the droid that can speak English translating everything the other droid said. Which is probably why they don't do droid episodes often. And it annoyed me that the used a knock-off Alan Rickman voice right after the real Alan Rickman died.

 

[The Tomtrek]

I didn't. Like half the episode was just the droid that can speak English translating everything the other droid said. Which is probably why they don't do droid episodes often. And it annoyed me that the used a knock-off Alan Rickman voice right after the real Alan Rickman died.

That's fair, although I would imagine Alan Rickman robot was something that was created and recorded long before Rickman himself died, so this would just be a case of unfortunate timing.


Episode 220 - The Mystery of Chopper Base

Picking up soon after the end of "The Forgotten Droid" - Kanan is training Ezra in preparation for their mission to Malachor, and the Rebels start to establish their base on the newly discovered planet, Atollon. We actually get to see a rare moment of relaxation for the crew, where Zeb and Ezra can just chill and watch the sunset, although there's obviously some sort of tension between Hera and Kanan.

That's all fine and good until a whole bunch of spider creatures start attacking the Rebels, and it's up to the crew of the Ghost to find out what's going on! The actual plot of this episode is very simple - although not bad - and basically follows all of the tropes that you expect from strange alien bug creatures in sci-fi. There's a nest where they have to rescue people from being trapped (Rex, in this case), they attack the Ghost as a massive swarm using their webbing(?) to hold it down, and they've eventually defeated by finding something that repels them (like a Thumper in Dune!).

But the aliens (based on an old McQuarrie design) look cool, the action is actually presented really well, and there's some nice moments for the characters to shine. Ezra gets to try and connect with the creatures... and fail. Rex gets to go one-on-one with a creature in a totally badass way. Sabine gets to be a badass by not only being the one to figure out that the creatures don't like the sensor markers that have been placed everywhere, but also being the one to go out and get one to free the Ghost.

But really what this episode is actually about is the aforementioned tension between Hera and Kanan. While Kanan has finally come around to working with a larger group of Rebels, Hera is now worried that his upcoming mission to Malachor will take both him and Ezra away from them - maybe for good. She spends most of the episode trying to prepare for the fact that they may have to survive without either of their two Jedi, and trying to come to terms with that.

Ultimately Kanan is mostly able to alleviate her fears, and we get yet another reminder that these two characters are really close but in ways we don't really see on-screen.

This episode is very much a 'breather' episode (or 'filler' episode, but I think that's doing it a disservice) before the season finale goes full-on crazy. But at the same time it's a fun and enjoyable one to watch, and nicely ties up the Rebel story arc for the season. It also very effectively builds up tension for the upcoming mission to Malachor: you very much get the feeling that, whatever happens, nothing will be the same afterwards.

And that's how the episode ends. Ahsoka comes back from wherever she was (where does she keep going all the time, anyway?) and the three get ready to head to Malachor.

 

[CaptainWacky]

It's not wrong that I find that last pic hot.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episodes 221 & 222 - Twilight of the Apprentice

I have no idea where to start with these episodes. There's so much going on.

Let's talk about Malachor. Apparently forbidden by the Jedi, we learn that Malachor is the site of an ancient Sith temple, where thousands of years ago a battle was fought between Jedi and sith - Ezra even finds one of the old-style crossguard lightsabers in a really blatant Force Awakens reference. But still, the underground temple looks amazing, as well as serving as a very literal visual metaphor for our characters descending into the underworld.

So Ezra, split up from Ahsoka and Kanan, runs into someone who's been hiding out in the temple for apparently years: Darth Maul. Last time we saw Maul he was running away from Dathomir after Mother Talzin got killed, but that was about 16 years previous to this. He gets introduced in quite an interesting way - always kept in the dark, acting like an old man who needs Ezra's help (well, he would be pretty old at this point...). I'm not sure if they really intended to ever hide the fact that it was Maul because it's really obvious (although maybe not so much to people who didn't watch Clone Wars).

I actually quite like the idea of an older, slightly wiser and calmer Maul. The last time we lost track of the character for over a decade he came back as a crazy half spider man, so it's nice they went in a different direction. Sam Witwer actually does a great job with playing this older, more calculating Maul, to the point where you could almost see why Ezra goes along with him for so long.

But yeah, ultimately, Ezra is so fucking dumb with Maul it's unreal. Okay, sure, he has no idea who Maul is but it's so obvious he's evil, including the fact that he has very detailed knowledge about the Sith, that it's insane for Ezra to just keep trusting him. Especially when he keeps insisting to Ahsoka and Kanan that he's totally trustworthy! And then, when it's finally revealed that Maul was just using Ezra, Ezra acts all shocked and surprised about it, as if it wasn't blindingly obvious to literally everyone else on that planet.

To be fair, there has been an undercurrent, especially "Shroud of Darkness" that Ezra has the potential to fall to the Dark Side, and this is essentially the first step at showing how easily he falls into temptation (really fucking easily).

There is an insane amount of lightsaber action in this episode (especially for an episode set during a time when there are no Jedi!). Not only is there a totally new Inquisitor, but he calls in the other two - leading to multiple Inquisitors vs. Ezra/Maul/Kanan/Ahsoka battles. It does get slightly too much at some points, but never to the point where it detracts from the episode.

Speaking of the Inquisitors, they can now fly. Sort of. They use their spinny lightsabers to helicopter through the air. Sure, it makes sense from an in-universe point of view (the lightsabers spin using repulsorlifts which would also generate the floating, similar to a landspeeder) but that doesn't stop it from looking really kind of dumb.

But, for some reason, and I get that this is probably just me - it kind of works? I mean, for just this episode. This is such a crazy fever dream of an episode with so many big things happening at once that the fact that the Inquisitors can now do this just feels crazy enough to fit in with everything else that's happening. If they did it in literally any other episode, it would just be dumb (which is still kinda is).

A lot happens to the characters in this episode. Ezra finds Maul and steals a Sith holocron (and uses it to activate an ancient Sith weapon, nice job Ezra), all three inquisitors get killed, and Kanan loses his sight in a fight with Maul (again, nice going Ezra). But let's face it, as good as the Ezra/Kanan/Maul stuff is, that's really not why we're here.

Ahsoka Tano is an incredibly important character, easily the most important character that has never actually been in a Star Wars film. Since the very start of the Clone Wars series we've seen her grown from a headstrong and overconfident padawan, to a wise and powerful woman. It's one of the best arcs across the entirety of Star Wars, only possible because it happened through a long-form format like a TV show rather than through individual films. It's easily the reason why I like Ahsoka so much - I saw her grow as a character and because of that it was easy to start to identify with her and really get invested in her journey. While a lot of that was down to the writing, Ashley Eckstein's performance was also a vital part. So when the character returned to Rebels I was overjoyed, because this character's journey could finally continue.

Ultimately, that ended up being a bit of a disappointment. Ahsoka barely shows up during season 2 of Rebels, although her brief appearances were often amazing. The fact that "The Siege of Lothal" set up a Vader/Ahsoka confrontation meant that throughout the entire series we were waiting for it to happen. Obviously it was going to be something they'd save up for a season finale, but that meant that so much of the season felt like filler when Ahsoka wasn't around. Looking back on it, I wonder if it wouldn't have been better to reintroduce Ahsoka later, say during the mid-season finale of season 2. That way we wouldn't have to wait as long for the resolution of her story.

But this is it. Ahsoka and Vader. Ahsoka and Anakin. Finally meeting again (on-screen we had not seen these two characters since Ahsoka walked away from the Jedi Temple, but the characters themselves had not met since just before Revenge of the Sith).

And they pull it off. It's kind of insane that they do, but they really pull it off. From a technical point of view, seeing the quick and fluid movements of Ahsoka next to the slower and deadlier moves of Vader is a great way to show off the differences between the two characters, while at the same time keeping Vader's abilities the same as what we see in both Rogue One and A New Hope. But like all good lightsaber fights, what makes it exceptional is not just the coreography of the fighting, but the interactions between the two characters - and they knock that out of the park.

The Anakin/Ahsoka relationship was a big part of The Clone Wars, arguably the biggest part, and now we have the final final (probably) moment of that relationship, as Ahsoka has to confront who Anakin has become. At first, Ahsoka fights Vader as a representation of the corruption that killed her Master. It's important to note that Vader specifically refers to Anakin as someone totally different, someone he (Vader) 'killed'. It's only once Ahsoka damages Vader's mask that she confronts the fact that Anakin and Vader are one and the same person and realises that she can't leave him, and sacrifices herself to save Kanan and Ezra.

The most genius - and heartbreaking - part of this is that as soon as Vader's mask is broken we hear both Vader (James Earl Jones) and Anakin (Matt Lanter) speak at the same time. Exactly as it did in "Shroud of Darkness", hearing Ashley Eckstein and Matt Lanter talk to each other as Anakin and Ahsoka is an instant way to bring up all of the Clone Wars feelings of their relationship, and an amazing way to end Ahsoka's journey with Anakin.

This episode gives us the unique opportunity to see Darth Vader in the full context of Anakin Skywalker, and in a way it was the final step needed to truly cement that the character we saw both in the prequels and in Clone Wars is still in there, somewhere. It's just that Ahsoka is not quite the person to bring it out in him.

Ahsoka's fate is left uncertain, and I think that's the right call. It could have been very easy to kill Ahsoka off in this episode, and indeed that was my main worry the first time I watched it. But instead we get a neat resolution to her character while avoiding the full tragedy of her death.

And that's kind of the weird thing about this episode. For all the Mauls and Inquisitors and Holocrons, the part that makes it work, the part that makes it probably the best episode of Rebels so far, is based on a character relationship from an entirely different show. Obviously The Clone Wars got cancelled way before it was meant to, meaning that a lot of the characters never got the closure they were meant to, so this was an opportunity to do that for Ahsoka.

In a way, it meant that parts of this season of Rebels felt more like Clone Wars season 20 than it did Rebels season 2. I am totally biased when I say I have no problem with that, as I loved The Clone Wars and it's characters (moreso than I do with Rebels), and having these moments that are so interconnected with what has come before is great when you're watching everything in order as I am right now. It helps Star Wars feel like one long story rather than a whole bunch of smaller ones.

Rebels goes on, with it's own (good) characters and it's own (good) plots, but this episode marks the end of an era that started back between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith: the era of Ahsoka and Anakin.

 

[SAUSAGEMAN]

make sure to deal with this guy when you get to rotj
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/5mwxyu/noticed_this_mon_calamari_who_cant_find_his/

 

[CaptainWacky]

^A better character than anyone in Rogue One.

I agree that the Ahsoka/Vader stuff was great, but yeah...it's not really part of the storty of Rebels, is it? They could have done a much better job integrating Ahsoka into the Rebels universe. If she had really bonded with Ezra or Kanan it could have meant something to Rebels as a show when she died (I know she didn't actually die but they probably think she's dead.) As it is I guess Ezra and Kanan were sad when she died(?) but it didn't really impact them as characters, did it?

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 301 & 302 - Steps into Shadow

It's six months later and everyone has a hot new style! Zeb has a new outfit! Sabine's repainted her armour and recoloured her hair! Kanan has a beard! Hera has, uh, new overalls? Ezra's cut his hair and had a growth spurt!

Also Hondo's there.

In the last six months it's obvious Ezra's changed a lot. His previous lightsaber/stun-gun combo was destroyed by Vader, so now he's rocking a normal blaster and a full on lightsaber - which means that he's actually killing the stormtroopers he shoots, instead of stunning them. He also has better control over the force, being able to pursaude an AT-DP walker pilot to not only kill his own men, but walk off a platform to his death. Actually, Ezra's pretty messed up right now - because, as we soon find out - he's been using the Sith Holocron from Malchor to learn new powers.

The core of this episode is about the fact that Kanan and Ezra are no longer really talking to each other on Malachor, and how Kanan's absence has meant that Ezra goes to the holocron instead. This is fine, but the problem is that it relies on a lot of story happening off-screen. As Wacky mentioned, we never actually see Kanan and Ezra react to Ahsoka's (apparent) death. Instead we just see then not talk to each other because of reasons. The primary issues they have to deal with in this episode have nothing to do with Ahsoka, and instead relate to the other things that happened on Malchor.

Kanan has to learn to accept the loss of his sight and learn to see with the force rather than his eyes. Luckily, there happens to be an ancient force user known as The Bendu right there on Atollon for him to talk to.

Okay, it's a bit contrived that he happened to be on the exact planet they're already on, but whatever - it's Tom Baker! As history has shown, if you want someone to play a centuries old, slightly crazy but very wise alien Tom Baker is a very good bet. What's interesting about The Bendu is that he defines himself as being neutral in the force (literally "the one in the middle"), very much like The Father was back on Mortis. I'm not sure exactly where he fits in terms of crazy force creatures (like the family on Mortis or the Preistesses Yoda meets). Here The Bendu plays more of a mentor-like role, allowing Kanan to overcome his fear and start truly seeing with the Force.

Ezra, on the other hand, leads a mission of his own as he takes Zeb, Sabine, Chopper and Rex on a mission to an Imperial demolition station to steal some Y-Wings that are about to be scrapped. Y-Wings! They're a thing we've seen before! Black in The Clone Wars they were cool and sleek ships, but now they've seen better days.

The point of this mission is that Ezra is very bad at leading it. He goes in to steal the ships immediately instead of just doing recon - despite everyone telling him that was a bad idea. He lets The Phantom get destroyed! He cuts all power to the station while he's still on it so he ends up being stuck as it plummets down to the ground. For once, this is Ezra's cocky attitude coming back to get him, and it's only because he's rescued by Kanan that he doesn't end up killing himself.

On the Imperial side, we have a couple of new characters! Governor Pryce, who was mentioned throughout Season 1, finally makes an appearance and asks Tarkin if she can call in Grand Admiral Thrawn to help with the Rebels. Thrawn in this episode is interesting. A character from now uncanonical books, Thrawn was known for playing the long game and really getting to know his enemies. We see that here - he's able to work out Ezra's plan exactly, but lets them get away with it because he wants to wait for a larger target to appear. He's cool, but he doesn't really do that much in this episode (especially compared to Vader in "The Siege of Lothal"!). Lars Mikkelsen plays him very well, though.

Also, the officer in charge of the demolition station is Commander Titus, who's obviously been demoted since he lost the Interdictor ship back in "Stealth Strike". Ezra's kind of a dick to him here.

They get away with the Y-Wings, Ezra gets told off by Hera, and Hera sends the Y-Wings off to someone called General Dodonna (I guess we'll never see them again!).

This episode is... okay? It's mainly about two characters reconnecting, although the point where they split up was off-screen so by the time we learnt why the split up they're back together anyway. The episode has a problem of being half trying to catch us up to things that happened in the six-month gap and half setting things up for later in the season, and as a result it means that the actual episode part of the episode gets kind of lost. It especially pales in comparison to "The Siege of Lothal" which not only totally changed the set up for the show, but also had a lot of Vader kicking ass. Admittedly one of the biggest problems Season 2 had was that had to wait until the very end of the season to pay off what "The Seige of Lothal" set up, so maybe it's for the better this episode wasn't quite as big.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Season 3 wasn't on the list! You swerved us!

The Bendu was the best thing about those episodes.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Season 3 wasn't on the list! You swerved us!

A lot of Star Wars has come out since I started watching all of Star Wars!

Episode 303 - The Holocrons of Fate

Maul's back! And he's taken over The Ghost! And holding the crew hostage unless Kanan and Ezra bring him the Sith Holocron!

I'm kind of surprised that they brought Maul back as quickly as they did, honestly. It's more Rebels' style to forget about big characters coming back for, like, most of a season (LIKE THEY DID WITH AHSOKA, IS WHAT I'M GETTING AT). But no, now Maul's back and he wants both holocrons for some reason.

Also coming back sooner than expected is The Bendu. As Kanan only gave The Bendu the Sith Holocron at the very end of the last episode, it feels a bit weird to have him come back and get it almost right away. Especially as a large chunk of the episode is devoted to Kanan and Ezra getting it back. Like, an annoyingly large part of the episode is about getting the holocron back from the place Kanan put it in the previous episode. Bendu put it in the caves with the spiders and Ezra and Kanan have to work together to get it back.

This at least lets us have a scene between Kanan and Ezra where they talk about what happened on Malachor (although they still don't seem to give a shit about what happened to Ahsoka). Although we had Kanan "come back" for Ezra in the previous episode, here we see them actually make up. Kanan tells Ezra that what happened to him on Malachor wasn't his fault, and while it's a nice scene Kanan is also totally wrong because literally everything that happened on Malachor with Maul is actually Ezra's stupid fault.

We do at least see the remaining crew of the Ghost try to escape and defeat Maul... only to be captured right away. It's nice that they show that they would at least try and fight back against him, but because they get put right back into the same position anyway it's really just trying to pad the episode.

Kanan and Ezra learn from Bendu that Maul is trying to combine the two holocrons to get the answer to any question they ask. Sure, holocrons can do that now, why not? But at the same time it will cause "great chaos".

The episode really only picks up when Ezra and Kanan land on Maul's asteroid base (previously seen in Son of Dathomir!) and Maul starts getting super bitchy at Kanan and then proceeds to almost immediately throw him out of an airlock. INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH Kanan seems to almost freeze to death in the vacuum of space, which is weird because he seemed fine hanging out in a vacuum back in the Space While episode!

Ezra and Maul combine the holocrons: Ezra is looking for a way to destroy the Sith, while Maul is looking for "hope". Everything goes SUPER BRIGHT and no one can rescue Ezra because of all of the force that's just everywhere now. Apart from Kanan, who's blind! I do like how they show how Kanan can 'see' Maul and Ezra through the force because of the holocrons - the only time we've ever seen anything like a first person perspective of how a force wielder sees the world.

Kanan manages to pull Ezra away before either Maul or he can see the answer to their questions - although it was enough for Ezra to see "Twin Suns" and for Maul to know that someone is still alive. It's pretty obvious what they're trying to set up (IT'S OBI-WAN) but it's cool nevertheless.

FUN FACT: This episode is the first time we hear Kanan's real name "Caleb Dume" on the show. It was previously said in both the Kanan comics and in "A New Dawn", but at least now we know 'Dume' is pronounced 'Doom'.

The problem with this episode is that it feels like a whole load of fitter before the actual plot starts, and then that bit is over in about five minutes. Most of the episode is spent undoing something that Kanan did right at the end of the previous episode. It's still OK though, I just wish it was a bit more evenly paced.


Episode 304 - The Antillies Extraction

RIGHT OFF THE BAT this episode is awesome because we finally see some TIE Interceptors fucking shit up and TIE Interceptors are awesome. One even has the red 'blood stripes' from the old EU (although it's not Soontir Fel so whatever).

But that means that the Rebellion is in need of some more pilots and luckily an agent named Fulcrum has given them information that some Imperial pilots wants to defect! They do actually explain that this Fulcrum is not Ahsoka (THEY ACTUALLY REMEMBERED AHSOKA EXISTED) but that the title passes from operative to operative.

They assign Sabine to go undercover at the training facility where the pilots are located to get them out of there, which makes sense what with Sabine actually having been an Imperial Cadet before. Of course, Ezra instantly starts to complain that it's not him going. Ezra's entire arc in this episode is complaining that it's about Sabine and not him. Not every episode has to be about you, Ezra!

Anyways, they made the wise choice of having the Imperial Training Facility be suspended in the atmosphere of a gas giant, which A) Looks really cool, and B) makes this facility visually distinct from all the others we've seen so far (such as the training facility on Lothal).

Seriously, this show can still look really nice when it's not trying to show any sort of close-up detail.

OK, at this point I just have to get it out of the way and say that Sabine undercover with her normal hair and her pilots uniform looks awesome. I would not feel right if I didn't point that out because it's a big part of the episode.

(again see how the orange sky just makes this base look nicely unique)

We get to see some of the training TIE Fighter Pilots go through, including a great scene where Sabine ends up coming face-to-face (and being killed by) a simulated version of The Ghost in one of the training simulators. Eventually she finds the cadet she's looking for: Some dude named "Wedge Antillies".

Okay, so, Wedge is cool and all. Don't think I don't like Wedge, okay, because I do. But the thing is with Wedge in this episode is... he's really bland?

He's not an exceptional pilot, he's not very interesting as a character, he's just... some guy? I mean I guess Wedge in the films was also just 'some guy', but at least Denis Lawson was able to give him some personality (I'm not counting Fake Wedge, fuck that guy). Wedge has two friends he wants to escape with: "Hobbie" and "Obviously Dying In This Episode".

Things are made more complicated when Agent Kallus and Governor Pryce arrive, apparently aware that some pilots are thinking of defecting. We've only seen Pryce in one episode so far, so this episode is really her chance to shine. And I think that, as a villain, she's actually pretty good! She comes across - both to the viewer and in-universe - as a more competent version of Kallus, something which very obviously annoys Kallus. She is able to totally shut down Sabine, Wedge, Hobbie and Dead Guy's escape attempt by sabotaging their TIE fighters, and most shockingly of all she kills of Dead Meat Friend in a move that no one saw coming at all.

Luckily, Sabine happens to be awesome and so not only escapes from being tortured by Pryce, rescues Wedge and Hobbie and steals a TIE Bomber to get away. The best thing this episode does - and I like this episode quite a bit - is that it just shows Sabine being awesome and rescuing everyone and this is why I wish she was in more episodes because she's really good at being awesome and SHUT UP EZRA.

She does get some help from Agent Kallus, apparently repaying the debt to Zeb he owed from "The Honorable Ones" - but maybe there's something more to that (he's obviously Fulcrum)?

Anyways, I like this episode. It looks good, Sabine's great as usual, TIE fighters of various types are cool, and it does introduce two characters from the Original Trilogy, even if they do seem to lack a personality in this episode. This episode was actually written by Gary Whitta, fresh off of writing Rogue One - which makes the ties to the original trilogy not very surprising!

Woah woah woah woah woah woah, I'm sorry, wait.

Wait.

WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH HOBBIE'S FACE??

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 305 - Hera's Heroes

We're back on Ryloth - actually the first time we've seen the surface of the planet since The Clone Wars (we were always in orbit back in "Homecoming"). Cham Syndulla and Numa are having a bit of bother with the Empire before Hera rescues them, in a pretty good opening action sequence.

Firstly, it's great to see Hera and her dad working together happily. Like, that's actually fun to see. Unfortunatley it seems like the Empire has taken over Hera's old family home, and with it her family heirloom the Kalikori. It's nice that they keep developing the Twi'Lek culture, both through Clone Wars and Rebels. Twi'Leks were always a bit sterotyped as either being creepy assholes (for the men) or scantily dressed slave girls. Aayla Secura, as much as I quite like the character, didn't really help in that regard. But now we're seeing more Twi'Leks in different roles, and seeing more of their culture making them a more well-rounded people.

One of the main things that defines Hera as a character is her committal to the Rebel cause, so it's a big departure to see her try and risk her life on a personal mission - going to get the Kalikori. Of course, the rest of the crew volunteer to join in, which again is nice. Had they pulled the "You'd do it for us!" line back in Season 1 it probably would have felt forced, but now we're at a point where this crew is comfortable enough acting like a family that it feels natural.

Ezra and Hera sneak in to her old home disguised as a biker scout and prisoner. Chopper is there too, and there's a nice moment where he goes past the Y-Wing that crashed outside Hera's house during the Clone Wars, and it's clear Chopper still has some issues with that.

(of course this should be one of the yellow and white models, with all it's plating, that we actually saw in Clone Wars... but I guess they didn't have to budget to make a new one of them so they just used an original-trilogy style Y-Wing from "Steps into Shadow" but WHATEVER)

The mission to get the Kalikori is easy enough, but while trying to get out they only happen to run into Grand Admiral Thrawn! We didn't really get to see a lot of Thrawn back in Steps into Shadow, all he really did was step into a room and say "I know their plan" in a cool and evil way. But here we actually get to see the process behind what makes him such a credible threat to the Rebels. Having captured Hera and Ezra, he very quickly works out who they are just by a process of deduction. Unlike the other Imperial officers, he's studied Twi'Lek culture, and so knows the significance of the Kalikori as a family heirloom and that this must be Hera Syndulla. To top it off, he quickly stuns Ezra (still disguised as a trooper at this point) because obviously he's with her. Hera actually gets really riled up at Thrawn, something we don't often see her do, another way of showing just how easily he's able to attack her on a personal level.

In the books, Thrawn's powers of deduction were a bit silly. He'd be able to look at a painting done centuries ago and be able to use that to work out the battle plans of an enemy commander of the same species as the painter. He could see how that culture thinks just from the painting and apparently that was enough. Rebels tones it down from a more Sherlock Holmes level of deduction to just being a really thorough tactician, and it works a lot better.

Thrawn offers Hera to the Rebels as an exchange for Cham, which he agrees to (to everyone's shock). Hera is able to use Chopper to rig her entire house with explosives, destroying her family home as a distraction so that she, Ezra and her father can escape. Thrawn does his usual "let them go because this really helps my with my bigger target" thing. It works here, but if he does it too much it could end up weakening the character.

The moral of this story, as said by Hera at the end, is that she realised that it's not the Kalikori or her home that matters, but her family that's here - both Cham and the crew of the Ghost. It's a hokey message, sure, but since one of the main elements of the show is the concept of the crew of the Ghost as a big family, it's one that works.

This is, overall, a good episode. It fleshes out Hera as a character without having to rely too much on big exposition dumps. It also shows Thrawn as being a very credible threat to the Rebels, and obviously working on some sort of long-game. The biggest problem with this episode is that it keeps cutting back to the rest of the Rebels fighting against the Empire, but not really doing much. As in "The Holocrons of Fate" it feels very much like filler.


Episode 306 - The Last Battle

Kanan, Ezra, Zeb and Uncle Rex are on the planet of Agamar, looking through an old Clone Wars station to see if there's any ordnance they can scavenge. We learn that Ezra really doesn't know anything about the Clone Wars, apart from the stories Rex has told him, and as such romanticises it, while Rex still hasn't gotten over the whole thing.

Of course, as it turns out, there's still operational battle droids! I do like how clueless Ezra is about prequel things, like ray shields or what "Roger roger" is supposed to mean.

The droids are lead by a Super Tactical Droid named Kalani. We've actually seen Kalani before, way back in season 5 of The Clone Wars where he was on Onderon fighting against Saw Gerrera. At the end of those episodes he was ordered to fight on Agamar... which is here! He was so clever he assumed the droid shutdown command was a Jedi trick, and so has been hanging out on the planet with his battle droids for about 17 years now.

It's kind of weird to think that, of all the things that have been in all of the Star Wars I've watched so far, Battle Droids are one of the few things we can trace all the way back to The Phantom Menace. I mean at this point they've probably been the bad guys in more Star Wars than Stormtroopers ever have. I like Battle Droids, they're quirky, and they get shit upon a lot (like all droids).

Kalani demands that Rex, Kanan and Ezra, and a Clone Trooper, Jedi and Padawan, must the battle droids to prove once and for all who would have won the Clone Wars (a 'last battle', if you will). Ezra takes the whole thing as a sort of a game, while Rex takes it very seriously - he obviously needs to finish this as much Kalani does.

I find it interesting that we never see what Kanan thinks of fighting in the Clone Wars again. While he didn't fight as long as Rex did, he was still there. But yet we never really get to hear his opinion on the matter.

They just manage to defeat the Battle Droids, but only because most of them were old and worn out. After winning the battle, Ezra pipes up as he's finally worked out what the Clone Wars were really about: namely that neither the Clones or the Battle Droids were ever intended to win, but rather it was just a way to let the Empire take control. This is a really valid point about the futility of the entire Clone War, and it's good that the show addresses it... but it's super weird to have Ezra be the one who tells everyone this. Considering how little we know he knows about the Clone Wars, him suddenly seeing the truth of it seems a little out of nowhere. I guess you could argue that because he was the most objective person it allowed him to see the truth, but him just coming out with it out of nowhere doesn't really work.

Anyways, just as Ezra is telling everyone how smart he is, the Empire arrives! Kalani says that, hey, the Separatists never declared war on the Galactic Empire, so why fight them?

There's a great scene where a squad of Battle Droids go out to meet some Stormtroopers, and the Stormtroopers just treat the Battle Droids like they were a malfunctioning piece of equipment and gun then down. The Battle Droids were being polite and friendly and everything! Poor Battle Droids.

This is enough to convince Kolani that they are now on the same side as the Rebels, and so Clone Troopers and Battle Droids now must team up. I like the idea that the only way to defeat the Imperial Walkers is to set of proton bombs with precise shots... only the Battle Droids are terrible shots, so the Jedi have to reflect their shots to be more accurate. It was easy enough to assume that Battle Droids were terrible shots because they were usually only shooting at people with plot armour, but now it's established that that's actually something in-universe. Presumably the quality of their marksmanship was a trade off for them being cheap to make and buy so the Separatists could by them in larger numbers.

Everyone manages to escape (in cool Neimoidian shuttles) and Rex congratulates Ezra for being the one to finally end the Clone Wars. This is a bit much. Ezra being the one to realise that the entire war was pointless was one thing, but him being heralded at the person who ended it just seems totally out of place. Especially since his whole arc at the start of the episode was that he romanticised the war and didn't understand it's true nature, that basically gets forgotten about half way through the episode and suddenly he's a genius.

Yeah, this episode has some weaker spots when compared to the previous two, but it's still not bad. Seeing Battle Droids again is a nice bit of Clone Wars nostalgia, and it does actually address important concepts about why that war was fought at all.

As a nice touch, instead of the usual Rebels logo and credits we get a Clone War-eque version of the logo, and the Clone Wars theme instead!

It's a good way to touch on MY CLONE WARS FEELS but really hearing that music again just made me want to watch The Clone Wars again because man that show was good.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I'm sure we'll never see them fighting battle droids again after that!

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 307 - Imperial Super Commandos

The episode opens with Sabine hanging out with captured Mandolorian Fenn Rau (from last season's "The Protector of Concord Dawn") playing some sort of Mandolorian space daggers chess game?

Maybe it's more like Pop-Up Pirate? Anyway, whatever it is this episode is picking up the plot from last season, which is good because that episode left like it ended way too quickly.

The Rebels have lost contact with The Protectors on Concord Dawn, so Sabine, Ezra, Chopper and Rau (still a prisoner). If you're thinking that maybe taking a trained best-of-the-best Mandolorian prisoner with them was a bad move, you'd be right. As soon as Ezra turns his back (GOOD WORK EZRA) Rau knocks everyone out and lands on the planet.

All of the Protectors are dead - killed by a different type of Stormtrooper: The Imperial Super Commandos. Lead by a guy named Gay Saxon, they are all Mandolorians who serve the Empire. They wear cool white Mandolorian armour and have jetpacks. They're pretty cool.

We've actually seen Gar Saxon before, back in the Son of Dathomir comics where he was the new leader of the Maul-loyal Mandolorians. This is the second thing from that comic to pop up in this season so far! I actually quite like him as an antagonist, simply because he has a stronger connection to Sabine than Fenn Rau ever did - not only that they're both Clan Vizla, but that Saxon actually knows Sabine's mother, who apparently joined the Empire after Sabine left the Imperial Academy. This is literally the first thing we've ever heard about Sabine's family, so that's something!

Ezra and Chopper get captured while Sabine and Fenn Rau manage to escape. To Ezra's credit, he does a lot better than he usually does at pretending to be not a Rebel (even if Saxon is having none of it) which is a nice way to show how he's grown since season 1, where he was pretty shit at it.

But more interestingly, we get to see Sabine be torn between her Manolorian heritage and her loyalty to Ezra. Rau wants to leave him and escape, so Sabine has the decision to go with him or stay with Ezra. It's only when Rau finds out that Saxon was after him specifically and would have killed him even if he had not been captured that he at least agrees to free Ezra... although he does run off in The Phantom II as soon as that's done! I like Fenn Rau in this episode. He nicely walks the line between being a bad guy and a straight-up hero, and his arc of slowly learning to work with the Rebels is nicely done.

But yeah, the hightlight of this episode is easily the jetpack chase! Sabine steals herself one of the Super Commando's jetpacks and we can confirm something we've always suspected: The only thing cooler than Sabine Wren is Sabine Wren in a jetpack.

The chase manages to keep itself interesting because it keeps switching up what the Rebels are doing, from Ezra hanging below Sabine deflecting shots, to him surfing on top of Chopper (which looks better than you might think) while Sabine smokes fools while flying backwards in a jetpack because SABINE.

Sabine fights Saxon but Rau comes back and saves them and... yeah the ending feels very predicable. Not nessisarily in a bad way, as I felt Rau's change of heart was pretty well done (especially for only having 25 minutes to do it) but still - it's obvious that none of the conflicts that start in this episode are actually going to get resolved in this episode.

I like this episode overall. It's a bit slow before the action starts, but that's fine. We get more information about the state of Mandalore, and even about Sabine's mother. It's such a direct follow-up to "The Protector of Concord Dawn" that if this were The Clone Wars days this episode would probably come right after it, as part two of a four-parter. And that's what this episode feels like, a 'part two'. It's very much the middle part of a story - developing characters and establishing conflicts, but never really resolving anything. Presumably parts three and four will be later this season.

But still, the rule of "Sabine episode = generally good episode" still holds true!


Episode 108 - Iron Squadron

Ughhghhghgghhghh okay FINE I'll watch this episode again. One of the problems now that I've almost caught up with Rebels episodes is that I still have the memory of the bad episodes fresh in my mind when I watch them again. And this is a bad episode.

The Ghost arrives over the planet Mykapo to help evacuate people before the Empire invades, only there's one ship that won't leave: A YT-2400 freighter who uses rigged cargo containers to destroy the Imperial transport, crewed by what sound like children calling themselves the "Iron Squadron". Talking to Commander Sato, it's apparent that this is probably his nephew, who lived on Mykapo.

So we meet the members of Iron Squadron, all of which have been named after members of the Lucasfilm Online Team who make Rebels Recon and The Star Wars Show: Mart Mattin (Matt Martin), Gooti Terez (Andi Gutierrez) and Jonner Jin (John Harper).

Let me say this right now: FUCK MART MATTIN. The entire episode is based around him being a know-it-all asshole who thinks he can take on the Empire by himself, gets himself into stupid situations and then has to have everyone rescue him. The episode clearly wants us to sympathise with Mart, or at least want him not to die a painful death, hence why he's Sato's nephew instead of a random nobody. But he's just such an asshole and so dumb that you actively want him to just die and shut up and never be in Star Wars again. This guy is the spiritual successor to Corky from The Clone Wars, another terrible character who was the nephew of an established secondary character just so we would be somewhat invested in what they're doing. Also "Mart" is a dumb name ("No, my son is also named Mart").

Like, I watched through all three prequels and never felt majorly annoyed with any of the characters people get so mad about, like Jar-Jar or kid Anakin, but yet here we are. Remember that episode of Deep Space Nine where Jake and Nog find the ship full of elite cadets (RED SQUAD! RED SQUAD!) who think they know everything but it turns out that really they were all still very much children and it was just the Captain who was totally insane? That wasn't a very good episode, but that at least was trying to say something about how radicalise our youth during war time. This is just Annoying Kids Doing Dumb Things: The Episode.

To be fair, Gooti and Jonner aren't as bad as Mart, but that's only because they never really get any sort of personality other than "is an annoying teenager". Andi Guttierez deserved a better character named after her.

Thrawn's in this episode, but he doesn't really do much? Like, he sends Admiral Constantine to take on the Iron Squadron - obviously as some sort of test, but when he appears in his Star Destroyer at the end he doesn't even do his "I'm letting them go as part of my larger plans!" shtick, he just... lets them go?

Is there anything good about this episode? Sure...?

YT-2400s are cool and it's nice to see one in Rebels, although it's annoying to take a great ship and give it to annoying characters (although it's not like Dash Rendar was much better).

I liked Chopper and the Iron Squadron droid, R2-A3, working together. Mainly because R3 seems to be almost as much of an asshole as Chopper is.

The space battle scenes, for what they are, are still pretty good. This show does pretty good at not only having good looking space action, but making it feel like something out of the original trilogy. I think this is one of those times where their smaller budget actually helps the show, as it means they can't have the massive sprawling energetic space battles like Clone Wars did, but instead have to tone it down in scale a lot, which actually makes it feel closer to what they would have been able to do in 1977.

The continuing 'joke' (if you want to call it that) about Iron Squadron keeping calling various different Imperial ships "Star Destroyers" works in so much as it's actually quite satisfying to see them totally shit themselves when a real Star Destroyer arrives.

These kids being so annoying makes Ezra seem actually pretty OK.

I would rank this episode right next to the fucking Space Whale one as probably the worst episodes of Rebels. It's such a shame, as this season has been on a pretty good run up until now!

 

[CaptainWacky]

I'd literally managed to forget everything about that one aleady until I read that.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 309 - The Wynkathu Job

Y'know sometimes an episode of Rebels comes along that's so middle-of-the-road that it's really hard to actually talk about it. It's not super exceptional, and it's not super bad, it's just there. That's "The Wynkathu Job".

Ezra's been in contact with Hondo again, and he has another plan with which he needs the help of the Ghost - board an abandoned Imperial freighter and steal it's contents - treasures for Hondo, proton bombs for the Rebels. The 'big' reveal is that Hondo has partnered with Azmorigan, so I guess he's in this episode too.

The main theme for this episode - or at least what I think they were trying to make the main theme for this episode - is the idea that Ezra is still being really stupid for even trusting Hondo, but that he needs to learn the hard way that he's not trustworthy at all. Kanan literally says that at the start of the episode, so I'm going to assume that's what they were going for. The problem with that is that never actually happens. We see that Hondo left behind his previous crew on the ship when everything went wrong, but that's played more for a laugh than an actual learning experience. We see Hondo betray Azmorigan, which I think is what the episode wants to call the resolution of that arc, but all that gets is a single comment from Ezra and then it's never really commented on again. If they had Hondo actually betray Ezra, then he could have actually learnt the lesson he was supposed to learn! But as it is everything works for fine for the Rebels so there's no lesson learnt at all, and there's never a moment where Ezra has to go "Wow guys I'm sorry for being an idiot and trusting him.".

That's really my problem with Hondo in Rebels so far - he's toothless. Back in Clone Wars, you were never sure what sort of Hondo you were going to get. Sometimes he'd be the actual legitimate villain for the episode, and sometimes he'd be a wary ally. That's what made the character so interesting! But now it's always the same - he'll sound shady, he'll act in his own self interest, but at the end of the episode none of that matters because it all works out fine anyway.

This is a shame, because with that Ezra arc basically being worthless, the episode doesn't really have a lot going for it. It tries to be creepy by introducing a set of Sentry Droids on the ship - but that doesn't last long.

The Sentry Droids, incidentally, are based on the "Dark Troopers" from the now Legends video game "Dark Forces". I like Dark Forces (although I'm more of a Dark Forces II person) and I think Dark Troopers are great, so it's cool to see them... but it's also kind of annoying they just reduce them down to boring sentry droids on a random freighter.

I do like the setting for this episode - the freighter itself is slowly crashing down into a gas giant, meaning that there's some pretty great shots of the ships going into and flying through the giant storm it's stuck in. So that's something!

Yeah, this episode is the very definition of a filler episode - and not even a good one. Good filler episodes will at least do something to develop the characters or expand the universe slightly, but here we don't even get that. It's not aggressively bad like some episodes, but really it's not very good either.


Episode 311 - An Inside Man

We're back on Lothal! It's actually been a while since we've been here, so coming back and seeing it under full Imperial control is actually pretty interesting. Kanan, Ezra and Chopper meet up with the Rebel cell on Lothal, lead by Ryder Azadi (with his creepy face) - and Mr Sumar is there, too!

You remember Mr. Sumar, right? Ezra's friend? Ezra's friend who they specifically call out as being someone Ezra - and by extension, the audience - knows and cares about? You must remember him, surely!

He was that one farmer Ezra rescued over two seasons ago back in "Fighter Flight"! I watched that episode 6 weeks ago, with the knowledge that he was going to be brought back, and I totally forgot he even existed.

OK anyway, they're on Lothal to infiltrate the Imperial Factory there before the Rebel Fleet can come in and perform a larger attack. They manage to get into the factory only, wouldn't you just know it,Thrawn just happens to be there at the same time!

This is another episode that's really designed to show off Thrawn's skills of deduction, but also just how cruel he can be (he is an Imperial, after all). He knows Rebels have started to sabotage the equipment made in the factory, so he forces poor Mr. Sumar to test out a speeder bike until it explodes and kills him. No, not that highly memorable character!

Sometimes it is useful to show how ruthless the Empire can be sometimes. As they always seem to lose, and are mostly represented by either useless Stormtroopers or even more useless Officers of the week, the Empire could start to seem a bit weak. But every now and then we get moments like this where we're reminded that actually they're pretty evil sometimes.

I like that we see more of Thrawn doing his art thing, but again it's done in a more grounded way than "This 1,000 year old painting tells me this Rebel won't retreat". To Thrawn's credit, he does seem to keep up with everything Kanan and Ezra are doing in the base, the only reason they were able to escape was because they had unexpected help from... AN INSIDE MAN????

Yeah, to the surprise of no one, Kallus is the new Fulcrum. Well, I guess the characters are surprised about it (even Sabine, which, come on Sabine he let you go from the Academy it was obvious), and obviously for once Thrawn had no idea. I have to say I do like how Kallus' dissolution with the Empire has been set up since the end of "The Honorable Ones" - especially here in this episode, where you see how he's starting to become uncomfortable with what the Empire is doing. Although really, making him a Rebel spy was probably the best thing they could have done with the character because otherwise he'd have to keep losing to the Rebels every week which would have been terrible.

The Rebels escape, there's a cool fight scene with some Imperial walkers (Ryder manages to take one down with a rocket launcher - seems like the Empire should make the walkers tougher!) and we find out what the secret project Thrawn has been working on is:

~TIE DEFENDERS BABY~ After the YT-2400 in Iron Squadron and the "Dark Troopers" in The Wynkathu Job, this now makes three episodes in a row that have brought things in from Star Wars video games from the 90's (okay, yes, technically the YT-2400 was made for the Star Was Special Edition and not Shadows of the Empire but still).

Yeah this episode is fine. It's another episode where Thrawn talks a big game but never really does anything, which is starting to get a bit annoying. It nicely shows us how much the Empire has done to ruin Lothal, and that normal folk are now starting up their own Rebel cells.


Episode 310 - Visions and Voices

In case you were wondering, yes this episode and the previous episode were originally supposed to air the other way round, but they were swapped because they thought this would be a better mid-season finale (they were right). It explains why the episode opens with Hera talking about doing a recon for a mission to Lothal, and them not knowing if Thrawn is there!

Ezra's seeing spooky visions of Maul everywhere, which is making him act crazy - to the point where he almost kills one of the random Rebels on the base. Kanan and Ezra visit the Bendu, only to have Maul turn up himself and ask Ezra to accompany him in helping him make sense of the visions they got from the holocrons in "The Holocrons of Fate". I'm not really sure why the Bendu is in this episode at all, as all he does is just say "Hey guys turn around Darth Maul is there" and then do nothing.

Ezra goes with Maul on his own because if he didn't the episode would end, I guess. And Kanan and Sabine follow him in the Phantom II. BUT what's more exciting is that Maul is taking Ezra to Dathomir! The last time we saw (or rather, read about) Dathomir, Obi-Wan and Quinlan Vos were burying Asajj Ventress in the Nightsister's caves. It was sad. Sadly there are no cool ghosts of Ventress who become corporeal so that Asajj Ventress can be alive and awesome again.

It seems that Maul has been living here a while (which makes sense, because he's from Dathomir) and has horded some of the artifacts from when he was ruling Mandalore, including that painting of Satine that used to hang in her throne room, and the Darksaber!

Having Maul horde all of this stuff does show that maybe he's not totally mentally balanced at the moment, but he's still no where close to being robot-spider-legs-crazy.

So the point of this whole thing is that Ezra and Maul can drink some magic and work out what the holocrons showed them - namely, Tatooine and Obi-Wan. We as the audience pretty much guessed this back in "The Holocrons of Fate", so it's not really a surprise. Really, I'm not sure why this episode and "The Holocrons of Fate" needed to be two episodes. Why have two separate stories where Maul needs Ezra's help to find Obi-Wan - especially when "The Holocrons of Fate" had so much filler in it. If they'd gone with something else earlier in the season and then had Maul come back in this episode it would have been a lot more effective and they wouldn't have needed to stretch this plot out across the whole season.

It turns out the ghosts of the Nightsisters are still there (no Asajj...) and demand price for using their magic magicks. That price being Maul and Ezra's lives! Although Kanan and Ezra turn up right at that moment so they get possessed instead. They fight, possessed-Sabine picks up the Darksaber, and Maul and Ezra excape.

There's a nice moment where Maul and Ezra escape the caves (from which the possessed Sabine and Kanan can't leave) and Maul tries to convince Ezra to join him in finding Kenobi and leave the other two behind - saying that it's his 'destiny' to be with him. I kind of wonder if they're trying to build up to Ezra actually properly joining Maul at some point, maybe as a way of explaining where he is during the events of the original trilogy. I wouldn't necessarily be against that, if it was done well.

Ezra is able to be quite clever by using the force to push Sabine out of the caves, freeing her, and then goes back in for Kanan. He stops the Nightsister ghosts by... destroying their altar. If that's all it took to stop them, why didn't he and Maul just do that in the first place? I guess maybe Maul didn't want to destroy the Nightsisters' magic forever.

The episode ends with normal-Sabine picking up the Darksaber and taking it with her. It's good that Sabine has the Darksaber now because that's a cool lightsaber for a cool person.

This very much suffers from "part 2 of 4" syndrome where it's an episode where the plot is advanced just a little bit but we have to wait until the end of the season for any sort of resolve so here's some fighting in the mean-time. The important thing to take away from this is that Maul knows exactly where Obi-Wan is because he's been to Tatooine and so recognises it, but Ezra doesn't.

Bringing Obi-Wan back... I'm really interested to see how they pull that off. I'm not totally against it, but I've always liked the idea that Obi-Wan basically did shit all - certainly nothing Jedi related - when he was watching over Luke ("Obi-Wan Kenobi? Obi-Wan.... Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time. A long time..."). But I guess I can't really comment because those episodes haven't aired yet!

Anyway, I like how much of what we saw in Clone Wars is tied up in this episode (Dathomir, Mandalore, the Darksaber) and I think it's done in a way that wouldn't be too confusing for people who never saw that series.

Yeah, this episode is good. Maul's good, Ezra's not too stupid, Sabine's awesome, Nightsisters. I just wish this show would do things the way Clone Wars would do them and have the rest of this plot happen right away instead of waiting half a season!

 

[CaptainWacky]

Imagine if Obi-Wan and Maul never actually meet and the trailer just made it look that way with clever editing.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Maul gets killed by an angry elderly Watto.