Hello I'm Going To Watch All of Star Wars

[CaptainWacky]

I never got why they made Zeb so annoying and immature in the early episodes (they've cut down on it a bit.) What age is he even meant to be?

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 104 - Breaking Ranks

This is the first time we've seen Ezra on a mission on his own, and he's actually kind of tolerable in this episode? He's infiltrated the Imperial Academy on Lothal to retrieve the location of an Imperial shipment, but while he's there he realises that another of the cadets is in trouble, and sets out to rescue him.

There's a few things I like about the Ezra side of this story:
I like that, like always, Ezra is just The Best At Everything... except that this time it backfires and he attracts the attention of The Inquisitor.
I like that we find out there's another cadet also working against the Empire - it shows that the Rebellion is more than just the Ghost and it's crew, even if they're not all organised at the moment.
I like that the training in the Academy is very reminiscent of Moralo Eval's trials in "The Box".
I like Chopper painted in Imperial colours.

But yeah, Ezra is actually pretty OK in this episode. He's not too show-offy and cocky, and actually does risk his life to save other cadests. We even get a brief appearance from The Inquisitor, who's actually pretty creepy - helped a lot by Jason Issac's performance (and his cool music).

The other part of this episode is Hera and Kanan intercepting the Imperial shipment that Ezra found out about - which is notable because it's actually a giant Kyber crystal! Just like the one at the end of Clone Wars on Utapau! Clearly whatever the Separatists had in mind for it, the Empire had the same idea... maybe there will be a film about that. It also helps that this space battle is probably the best one we've had on Rebels so far. Again, no where near Clone Wars' level of space battle, but pretty good nonetheless.

So yeah, this episode? Pretty solid.


Episode 105 - Out of Darkness

After several episode about Ezra, Kanan and Ezra & Kanan, we finally get an episode where the women of the show are the primary focus! And it's pretty good, too!

Sabine accompanies Hera on a mission to meet the Ghost's Rebel contact, Fulcrum, however they get stranded on the asteroid they land on due to some terrible repairs by the boys. They then have to fight off waves of Fyrnocks, creatures who only attack in the dark.

We actually learn some new stuff about Sabine in this episode! We find out she was once part of the Imperial Academy on Mandalore (there were some things hinting this previously, but this is the first time it's directly confirmed) but she escaped as she had a problem with following orders blindly.

As well as getting more information about Sabine, we also see more of Hera as the actual Rebel leader she is. She gets her intel from a contact named Fulcrum, but Sabine isn't comfortable that she won't share it all.

As a side note - the asteroid base is left over from the Clone Wars, which gives them an excuse to dig out some of the old CG models!

I quite like that this isn't really an episode about two characters falling out and then learning to work together, it's more that Sabine has reasonable questions about what she's doing, and asks Hera for more information. Whereas Hera needs to keep security, and so needs Sabine to trust her. It would have been easy for this to turn into a big thing, but instead it's just two adults having a reasonable discussion about something. Also they fight monsters in the dark, but that's actually kind of beside the point.

Which is in stark contrast to Ezra, Zeb and Chopper, who are back to acting like literal children. I get that this is show for people of all ages, but they are actually supposed to be a crew of Rebels fighting against an oppressive evil Empire, so why does half the crew keep acting like five year olds?

Anyway, although the "Hera and Sabine shoot things until they're rescued" plot is a bit thin, it's a good excuse to spend some much needed time with these two characters, who actually are two of the more mature and sensible characters in the show right now (and also two of the best!).

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 106 - Empire Day

It's Empire Day! 15 years after the end of the Clone Wars, which makes this 15 years exactly after the events of Revenge of the Sith.

The crew of the Ghost are planning something to disrupt the Empire Day celebrations, but Ezra doesn't want to get involved. Ezra's always been kind of moody, so this does sort of seem normal for him.

We get a good look at how the Empire has been portraying himself during the 15 years it's been around. We see that Imperials demand that the Holonet broadcasts are constantly played, and we even see how they keep Palpatine's true (obviously evil) appearance hidden by using old photos.

At the celebrations themselves, all of the major imperial officers are in attendance: Minister Tua (blonde lady with a hat), Commandant Aresko & Taskmaster Grint (the two trainers at the Imperial academy), Agent Kallus and even The Inquisitor. I do like it when we see the Ghotst's crew pull off a plan successfully, and they actually manage to do that here! Distracting everyone with some Sabine-made fireworks, they manage to destroy one of the Empire's new TIE Advanced prototypes.

With the "Empire Day" part of the plot out of the way, we get to what the episode is actually about: Ezra's backstory. Hiding in his parents old place to hide from the Imperials, Ezra discovers an old friend of his parents - Tseebo - who has Lobot-like cybernetics filled with the Empire's secrets - incudling a "Five Year Plan" for Lothal. We get a lot of new information about Ezra here - both that his parents sent anti-Imperial propaganda messages out, which got them arrested, and that today is actually Ezra's 15th birthday. So he was born during the latter half of Revenge of the Sith.

What then follows is actually a pretty great escape sequence where all the various Imperials we've seen try and stop them leaving with Tseebo.

It's definitely one of the better and more extended action sequences we've had in the show so far that very cleverly passes the role of antagonist from Aresko & Grint, to Kallus, and then eventually to The Inquisitor in his TIE. What I actually like a lot about it is that it actually never ends, because the cliffhanger (this is part one of a two-parter!) happens during it!

So the cliffhanger is that during the battle Tseebo's cybernetics cut out (wouldn't that kill him? Isn't that Lobot's deal?) and he's able to talk to Ezra properly and tell him that he knows what happened to his parents!!!! It's an OK cliffhanger. I guess it depends just how much you care about Ezra's backstory (not that much).

I do actually quite like this episode. For an episode that's basically about Ezra, who gets way to much attention anyway, I like that they managed to fill it with more interesting things about The Empire and a good chase sequence. It's also one of the first episodes of Rebels that feels like it's actually progressing the larger story of the show, instead of being a one-off episode.


Episode 107 - Gathering Forces

The episode picks up exactly where "Empire Day" finishes, with the Ghost under pursuit by The Inquisitor, and Tseebo telling Ezra that he knows what happened to his parents. And Ezra being a major asshole to Tseebo because he now thinks that Tseebo failed him and his parents by letting them get taken by the Empire. I know Erza is literally a teenager, but man he's such an whiny asshole here. Ahsoka was also a teenager and even in her worst moments she was never this bad.

To the episode's credit, it's actually about the fact that Ezra's an asshole, and him coming to terms with the reasons why. During the battle, The Inquisitor plants a tracer onto the hull of the Ghost... or rather, it's actually the Phantom that he hit. This means that Kanan and Ezra can leave in the Phantom (while still in hyperspace!) to lure The Inquisitor away while the Ghost hands Tseebo over to Fulcrum.

Kanan's plan is to land on the asteroid base from "Out of Darkness", and try to control the Fyrnock's so they can attack The Inquisitor. However, in order for Ezra to be able to use the Force to do this, he actually has to confront that issues that's making him such an asshole. Namely, the fear over his parents fate, and that he had to give up hope that his parents were alive years ago in order to survive. It's actually a nice bit of character development for him, and at least the show acknowledges that he's kind of an asshole and uses that to further his development.

The Inquistor arrives, and while the Frynocks kill most of the Stormtroopers, he easily deals with them. Can I just say that I really like The Inquisitor? He looks cool, he has cool music, but most of all he's actually threatening. He does seem kind of unstoppable, but always calm and collected (seriously Jason Issacs is great). I really like that after he manages to knock Kanan's lightsaber out of his hand, and Ezra picks it up to try and fight, the Inquisitor just pulls it straight from his hand. Because he should be that much stronger than Ezra! It would seem really strange if Ezra would have had any chance against him at this point, and it's clear that he really doesn't.

In fact, the only way Ezra even has a way of distracting The Inquisitor so they can escape is to call upon the Dark Side and get the giant mother Frynock to attack him. It's actually a really cool moment when Ezra taps into the Dark Side, if only because of how terrified Kanan is. It's clear to Kanan that his training had not prepared Ezra at all for something like the power of the Dark Side, and even though Ezra manages to come through it, it's not to say that that problem is gone entirely.

Once again, another great episode. Even though this one's more focused on the Ezra and Kanan side of things, it's still very entertaining with an excellent confrontation with The Inquisitor that lets our heroes get away while not making The Inquisitor look too weak. This is actually also a really well directed episode, with the much simpler animation style of Rebels looking actually pretty good some times!


Episode 108 - Path of the Jedi

After Ezra's connection with the Dark Side in the previous episode, Kanan believes it's time for him to take his first test and see if he is really cut out to be a Jedi. In order to do this, they find the nearest Jedi temple... which luckily happens to be right on Lothal! Having the temple be on the exact same planet they're already on is a bit convenient. I mean, sure, we know that Lothal has some Kyber crystals on it from "Breaking Ranks", but still it very much feels like they just needed an excuse to stay on the same planet.

Anyway, this episode is very much Ezra facing his fears and confronting his emotions - it's basically his version of what we saw Yoda go through in his final arc during The Clone Wars.

He sees visions of his various fears - Kanan getting killed by The Inquisitor, the Ghost crew losing faith in him... and then getting killed by the Inquisitor. Ezra seems to fear The Inquisitor a lot!

Once Ezra faces these fears, he's able to move on to the next step of the process. This is when he starts to be guided by a mysterious voice... it's Yoda! It's actually Frank Oz Yoda!

Bringing Yoda in at this point is an interesting decision, as it does colour his next appearances in the films. Now, it seems, he knows that at least Kanan and Ezra are alive (if they are still alive by the time of The Empire Strikes Back...) when he trains Luke. What's interesting to note about both Yoda's presence here and his training of Ezra is that it directly draws from the lessons about the living force he learnt from the Priestesses and on Dagobah. Note that the firefly creatures he uses to guide Ezra are the same that Qui-Gon used with him.

It also explains how Yoda is even able to communicate with them while he's still on Dagobah. He's presumably learnt from Qui-Gon in this time about how to become part of the Living Force, which allows him to look through the Force into other force sensitive places, like the temple.

Yoda also talks to Kanan - who recognises him instantly - about how fast Ezra is growing in the Force, and Kanan has to face his own fears about not being a good enough teacher for him.

Yoda confronts Ezra about why he wants to be a Jedi, and what's interesting is that on the face of it, he has very similar reasons to Anakin - he wants to protect those around him. But unlike Anakin, whose desire to protect others came entirely from his own fear of losing them, Ezra wants to help others for purely altruistic reasons - something he learnt from the crew of the Ghost. Anyway, I guess Yoda's OK with this so he gives Ezra a shiny new kyber crystal so he can make his own lightsaber.

So at this point we know that Yoda is aware that he needs to wait for "another" to emerge and eventually destroy the Emperor. Obviously he believes this to be Luke... but where does Ezra fit in? Does Yoda think that, maybe, Ezra could be the one? Maybe? It's not clear (but that's not the point of the episode anyway).

I'd say the biggest problem of this episode is that it does feel a bit rushed. Ezra essentially speeds through his trials for no other reason that it all has to fit into a 25 minute episode. This is especially noticeable after we've seen Yoda essentially go through the exact same thing, but took four episodes to do it.

Anyway, it's still very good, and still more good development of both Kanan and Ezra's characters. Yoda's appearance makes this really the first time the show has directly connected with the larger Star Wars story (outside of, say, Bail Organa's cameo).

Three good episodes back-to-back! Wow!

 

[SAUSAGEMAN]

This art style is upsetting me

 

[The Tomtrek]

This art style is upsetting me

Yeah it's not always that great. I do think it looks better in motion compared to the stills, but there are still some moments where it looks really bad. It has been getting a bit better as the show goes on, though.

Episode 109 - Idiot's Array

Hello, what have we here?

The episode opens with Zeb getting swiftly beaten at Sabacc... after betting Chopper! And, of course, it turns out the man who beat him is a smooth-talking ladykiller named ~Lando Calrissian~.

Yes, Lando makes his canonically first appearance and he's pretty damn great! It's amazing that Billy Dee Williams - a man currently in his late 70's - is still able to pull off playing a smooth younger Lando (he must be, what, late 20's-mid 30's here?). I mean, sure, it's just the voice but there's no way Harrison Ford would be able to voice a young Han at this point. I like that Lando is basically an asshole who uses the crew of the Ghost to his own ends, but you just can't hate him because he's so charming (compared to when we see him in The Empire Strikes Back, where he's 'legitimate' now).

This is definitely a comedy focused episode, but unlike previous episodes the comedy is actually good and funny. I think this is mainly because unlike previous episodes there isn't really a main protagonist of this story, instead it's more about how each different member of the Ghost react to Lando. This is interesting because in doing so we learn a little bit about each of the characters - Hera basically sees Lando for who he is and just doesn't have any time for his bullshit. Kanan doesn't trust him but doesn't really have the ability to deal with him. Zeb is just angry that he beat him at Sabacc. Ezra likes him... until he starts to flirt with Sabine, then he hates him. Sabine's just happy someone cares about her art, but even she eventually starts to be wary of him. Chopper, though, pretends to like Lando but in fact was just playing him the whole time because Chopper is a criminal mastermind.

Lando deals with the criminal named Azmorigan, who's a bit of a one-dimensional character (he's fat and he eats a lot and is kind of gross!) but it's totally terrible. He's voiced by James Hong, who previously appeared as the head Sugi arms dealer in the unfinished Utapau arc in Clone Wars - I guess they felt guilty that his episodes never got finished? The best thing his character does is give Hera a chance to be a badass in escaping from him (she does and she is and it's great), so that's something.

Anyway, this is a fun episode. The comedy actually works for once, and it's a nice break from the Kanan and Ezra focused stuff of the last few episodes. Lando is a really fun addition to the episode, and easily feels like a younger and less mature version of the character we will later see in Empire - but at the same time they don't force any hamfisted references to Empire, so his inclusion feels more natural.

I LIKED THIS EPISODE.


Episode 110 - Vision of Hope

During a lightsaber training exercise, Ezra has a vision of "Senator in Exile" Gall Trayvis meeting the crew and apparently being attacked by Stormtroopers. Gall Trayvis has been in the background of a couple of episodes with Rebel propaganda messages interrupting the Imperial broadcasts (he was the one who said Luminara was captured on Stygeon Prime), and now we see that Ezra very much looks up to him. From his latest broadcast it seems like he's going to be visiting Lothal, so the crew of the Ghost form a plan to meet him.

This episode is, generally, about not giving up hope in the face of hopelessness. Sort of. Kind of. As it turns out, shocker, Gall Trayvis is actually an Imperial who has been going from system to system luring out the Rebels and identifying them to be killed later. This hits Ezra hard, as he had pretty clearly invested in Trayvis as a symbol of hope, but Hera had already figured it out so they were able to get away.

The thing about this episode is it doesn't really feel like much? Trayvis wasn't so big a part of the previous episodes that his betrayal is a big shock, so really we're in it for Ezra's reaction to it. I guess the message of "don't give up hope" is an important one for Ezra to learn, but that's pretty much all the episode has to say for itself.

That said, I did kind of like Trayvis when he appears here, just because of how terrible he was at being a Rebel. He's played by Brent Spiner in a guest role which, sure, he's fine? But seems a bit of a waste of a guest actor?

What this episode does have is a good action scene where the crew of the ghost rescue the Senator from the Imperials, in so much as we get to see the crew work together really well and that's always fun.

I dunno. This isn't a bad episode by any means, but it just feels a bit empty. I think it's all hanging on the fact that you either care about the Senator's betrayal, or Ezra's reaction to it, but I kind of don't.

 

[CaptainWacky]

The Lando episode was fine fun but it was the start of them having "guest character of the week" episodes where they kind of didn't have much plot and just relied on the thrill of the guest character to carry it.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 111 - A Call to Action

Awww yisss, Mother. Fucking. Tarkin.

Tarkin, now a Grand Moff and voiced again by Stephen Stanton, arrives on Lothal and totally shakes up The Imperials. Not only does he totally chew out Minister Tua, Agent Kallus and even The Inquisitor but he straight up executes Commandant Aresko and Taskmaster Grint. Throughout most of this season, the Imperials have always been a bit Saturday morning cartoon villain - Aresko and Grint especially - so basically Tarkin has joined the show to tell the Imperials to start acting like actual bad guys and to get things done.

And they do!

With the reveal of Gall Trayvis as an Imperial Agent, the crew of the Ghost decide to broadcast their own messages of rebellion, and in order to do that, they plan to take over the main communications tower on Lothal. Except Tarkin is one step ahead of them, and lures them into a trap - capturing Kanan and destroying the tower itself to stop the transmission from going out.

It's kind of crazy just how much the addition of Tarkin changes the show. Now there are actual stakes! It used to be a pretty good assumption that the Rebels would pretty much always get away with what they were doing. Even The Inquisitor, threatening though he is, still isn't able to totally stop them from doing what they want to do. But now Tarkin is here, and he's totally ruthless and willing to do anything to get the job done.

This is also a really nice transition between the Tarkin we saw in Clone Wars and the one we will eventually see in Star Wars. The Clone Wars Tarkin obviously had a lot of opinions about how to fight a war, and about the Jedi. But due to his rank (he was only an Admiral) he didn't really have any choice in how the war was fought. But now he has the power to do things his way, and firsthand knowledge of the Jedi, meaning that he's immune to pretty much anything the crew of the Ghost can throw at him.

So yeah. Having Tarkin as an actual threat, and having the crew of the Ghost actually fuck up (they are able to send out the transmission briefly, but Kanan has to let himself be captured in order to even do that) adds a needed breath of fresh air to the show, and nicely ups the ante for a season finale.


Episode 112 - Rebel Resolve

The crew of the Ghost are desperately trying to find Kanan, but having no luck. The fact that each of them - even Chopper - are so desperate to find him really pays off the development of this crew as a family we've had over the season. While most of the crew are determined to find him at any cost, Hera realises that in trying to find him they are jeopardising the larger Rebellion.

Ezra takes things into his own hands and talks to the crime lord Vizago (who we've only seen once in the series before!) and trades a favour from Kanan (who he reveals to be a Jedi) for information on where he might be.

While the first part of the episode is about how the crew of the Ghost reacts to Kanan's capture (especially Ezra because Everything Has To Be About Ezra) the second half is much more interesting, with Chopper infiltrating an Imperial ship so as to find Kanan's location. We get plenty of reminders that Chopper is a stone-cold killer, as not only does he take several Stormtroopers with him when he leaves via the ship's airlock.

But he also straight up murders the Imperial droid he took the place of, when it's revealed that he might be helpful to the Ghost's crew.

Don't turn your back on Chopper.

It's kind of a shame that after being so strong in the previous episode, Tarkin doesn't really get to do anything other than watch Kanan be tortured. In fact, there's multiple scenes of Kanan being tortured and saying nothing, which starts to get redundant after a while.

Overall, this episode does feel a bit like filler, but it's not bad filler. Literally the only thing that happens is that they find out where Kanan is being taken to (Mustafar! I know that planet!), but at the same time we do at least get to see how much Kanan means to each member of the crew, and we get to see Hera struggle between her loyalty to the Rebellion and her love for Kanan.


Episode 113 - Fire Across the Galaxy

Okay, yeah, this is how you do a Rebels season finale. There's a lot going on in this episode - not only does it tie up some of the threads of season one but it also sets up the larger scope of season 2.

So Kanan has been taken to Mustafar, and is still being interrogated by The Inquisitor on Tarkin's Star Destroyer. If he's still going to be interrogated on the Star Destroyer then why bring him to Mustafar at all? Well, we actually might have an answer to that thanks to Rogue One! (light Rogue One spoiler):

Spoiler: Light Rogue One Spoiler

We now know that Mustafar is where Darth Vader has his crazy lava castle, so presumably Tarkin was taking Kanan to Mustafar so that Vader to interrogate him himself, and just hadn't transported him down to the planet before the crew of the Ghost arrived.

Mustafar being Vader's base of operations also shows why Hera would refer to it as "the place Jedi go to die".

Anyway, the crew of the Ghost hatch a plan to rescue Kanan, which involves using the TIE that Ezra and Zeb didn't destroy back in "Fighter Flight", although Sabine has added her own touches to it since that episode...

Really, what I like about this episode is that it's not about Ezra and his growth, but more about Kanan. Since he basically spent the last episode doing nothing, as soon as he gets rescued by Ezra, Kanan has to face The Inquisitor, but is only able to do so thanks to his new found confidence and understanding of the force. I guess his faith in his friends being rewarded is what gives him the extra push, but he now has a new found sense of clarity, which allows him to look past The Inquisitor's menacing appearance and defeat his simple tricks.

I've always liked The Inquisitor, and I really like his death here. Instead of just being killed by Kanan, he actually kills himself - letting go of the ledge he's haning on to and falling into the exploding power core of the Star Destroyer. He does this because he realises that everything Kanan has now done - escaping Mustafar and defeating him - will put him in so much trouble that he'd rather die than deal with the consequences.

There's actually a really well done space battle - something of a rarity for Rebels. I think this art style looks best when it's not focusing on the character models, meaning that space battles can actually look pretty good (especially if they have the giant glowing red Mustafar in the background). It's especially amazing when the Rebel fleet arrive just in the nick of time. It's the first time we've seen any Rebels outside of the Ghost and it's crew - and it's full of Blockade Runners! Like Bail Organa had back in Revenge of the Sith!

And we learn that, yes, Bail Organa himself is part of the Rebel Alliance and helped with the rescue! And Fulcum's there and she's AHSOKA FUCKING TANO.

AHSOKA'S BACK.

SHE'S OLDER.

SHE'S A REBEL LEADER.

SHE'S AMAZING.

Like, okay, realistically Ahsoka was an obvious choice for the identity of Fulcrum, but her simple inclusion here opens up the world of Rebels into something much larger. Now it's connected to the six seasons of The Clone Wars directly, and we finally get the chance to continue Ahsoka's story, which was cut short due to The Clone Wars' cancellation. AHSOKA'S BACK.

But, as ever, with the return of Ahsoka comes the return of another familiar character. As Tarkin returns to Lothal, Kallus tells him that the locals are starting to see the Empire as weak after what happened on Mustafar. Tarkin says that it's not a problem, he's brought someone with him who can see to that...

The biggest problem with Season 1 of Rebels is that it feels very confined at times. Everything happens on the same planet, with the same group of people. But what this meant is that we were able to spend the time to build up this group of people as an actual family, all of which gets paid off in this episode. Plus, now we've taken the first steps into the larger Star Wars universe, so these characters who we now know very well (for the most part) can start exploring and interacting with more places and people who we may already be familiar with.

This is a pretty great episode, is what I am saying.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I like her mighty lekku.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episodes 201 & 202 - The Siege of Lothal

Okay so these are technically two episodes, but they were shown as one long episode so I'll review them as such.

Picking up from where the end of season 1 left off, we see the crew of the Ghost now working together with the Rebels - who we learn are Phoenix squadron, commanded by Commander Sato (Ahsoka is there too). Kanan is having problems with the idea of working with other groups - he preferred working solo, and fighting with a group is too much like fighting in war to him. It's a nice element of Kanan's character that he has to start learning how to work as part of a larger group again, after having all of the Jedi around him killed.

What this episode does is tie off one of the last loose ends of season 1, namely Lothal itself. Season 1 was tied to Lothal in a lot of ways, and this episode goes out of it's way to ensure that this season will cover a much larger scope.

The crew return to Lothal after leaning that Minister Tua wants to defect to the Rebels, only to find out that Darth Vader had lured them into a trap, killing Tua and framing the crew of the Ghost. This then leaves the Rebels totally stuck on the planet, with no ship, and hunted by Vader.

Vader's presence is felt throughout this entire episode. He's constantly hunting the rebels, and feels like a continuing threat - moreso that he really does in any of the films. Like Tarkin before him, he adds another level of serious threat to the rebels. But where Tarkin did it through out-thinking the rebels and going to lengths other Imperials would not, Vader does it by pure force (not THE force, just force).

When he finally confronts the crew of the Ghost, we see once again that Kanan and especially Ezra are totally outmatched. Like with The Inquisitor, all they can do is run from him.

James Earl Jones returns as the voice of Vader, and while he's not quite doing the same voice any more, it's close enough that you really don't mind.

The only trouble with using Vader like this is that he's too powerful for this show sometimes. Unlike The Inquisitor we know he can't be killed, and we also know he won't kill the crew of the Ghost, so all he can really do is put on a big show and be a terrifying presence. The show makes this work by having him be the main reason why they can't return to Lothal, so Vader is more a threat rather than a continuing presence on the show.

The crew manage to escape Lothal (with the help of Lando!) and return to the fleet... only to find out that Vader has tracked them! Once again we see Vader totally wreck basically anything he comes across, single-handedly destroying the largest ship in Phoenix Squadron.

After her surprise (sort of) reappearance at the end of "Fire Across the Galaxy", we don't really get a lot of Ahsoka until this second half of the episode, and that's only so she and Kanan can try and learn who is attacking them through the force... and in doing so both Ahsoka and Vader discover that the other is there (although Ahsoka obviously doesn't want to believe it). It's a really good moment, the first time these two characters have interacted since the end of Season 5 of The Clone Wars (on screen at least, canonically the last time they met was on Mandalore just before Revenge of the Sith, but that never got made).

The episode ends with Vader talking to The Emperor, basically saying that Vader should just send another Inquisitor to hunt down Ahsoka, as a way of making sure James Earl Jones doesn't have to be in every episode this season!

This is a good episode that directly pays off the big reveals at the end of the last season (Ahsoka and Vader) and totally cuts the crews ties with Lothal (for now). Kanan gets a nice bit of character development at the start, but it does pretty much get forgotten about by the end of the episode, which is a shame. Likewise, I wish they had given Ahsoka a larger role in this episode as it's a shame to bring such a fan-favourite character back and then have her stand in the background for most of the episode.

Anyway, it's a good start to the season!

 

[CaptainWacky]

I remember the part where Vader just fucked up all the Rebel ships with his one TIE fighter being the coolest scene in Rebels by far at that point. Best starpilot in the galaxy indeed!

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 203 - The Lost Commanders

There's a lot to say about this episode - about how it blends both Original and Prequel Trilogies, and how it looks back on the events of the Clone Wars series - but I think I should address the most important part of this episode right away:

~Sabine has new hair and armour~

Anyways, after the destruction of their command ship by Darth Vader in the previous episode, the Rebels realise that they need some sort of base from which to built up their forces. Ahsoka recommends they find an old friend of hers, who knows the outer rim well (she doesn't come along because she's looking for more information about Darth Vader and this show seems to want Ahsoka to do as little as possible for some reason).

Using the head of an old Separatist tactical droid, they manage to track down who Ahsoka was talking about - and it turns out to be some Clones! Old clones now! Specifically Rex (we know who that is), Wolfe (Plo-Koon's Clone Commander) and Gregor (the Clone Commando who lost his memory during the Droids arc in season 5, last seen in the middle of a giant explosion).

What bringing the clones back into this time period does, apart from draw a neat line that connects the prequel and original trilogies, is let our characters look back on the events of the Clone Wars now that there's some distance. Kanan immediately distrusts the Clones, which makes sense considering they all turned on him and killed his master right in front of him. Hera sees the Clones as heroes, as she was there when they helped liberate Ryloth (at the end of Season 1 of The Clone Wars). Ezra and Sabine just judge them for who they are now, as they're both too young to have lived through the Clone Wars. Rex seems to regret fighting in the war, seeing now that it was all basically pointless as it lead to the empire taking over, Wolfe just wants to be left alone, and Gregor is crazy.

There's a lot of nice design work in this episode. The Clones ride around in a converted AT-TE that's overflowing with extra details. They each have a scar on their head from where they removed their biological Order 66 chip (which means, at some point, Rex must have had the realisation that everything Fives had said to him was right). Gregor's even wearing the t-shirt of the cantina he worked at when he lost his memory.

Most of the actual episode is taken up by the Clones and the Rebels trying to catch a large sandworm creature in an extended Jaws tribute (with Zeb as the bait), which is fine - but it does feel like they're stalling so they can have the actual plot in the next episode.

For some reason, Wolfe tells the Empire that there's a Jedi on the planet. I guess the excuse is that Wolfe is super jumpy around Jedi (for reasons never explained) but when he's called out on it he just goes "Oh yeah, sorry, my mistake" so it's never really clear why he decided to call them in (other than because that's what the plot is).

Even though the plot of this episode is really light, it's still fun seeing the Clones again, as well as having another tie back to The Clone Wars. This episode does very much suffer from "part 1" syndrome, where it's afraid to do anything interesting and instead tries to save it all until part 2.


Episode 204 - Relics of the Old Republic

While the previous episode was all about reestablishing the Clones, and seeing the other character's reaction to them, this episode is basically pure action. But, y'know what, it's really good action.

I like how the Empire basically regard Clones as a bunch of useless old men who really should just be retired at this point, which is odd when you consider that even the oldest Clones wouldn't be more than about 35 years old (that's accelerated aging for you!). I also like how the Clones have a pretty low opinion of the Empire and their useless stormtroopers.

After fighting off a TIE Fighter attack (with Gregor one-shotting the TIE... he was a Clone Commando after all!) the Clones spot some AT-ATs approaching from a distance. They have a nice moment where they geek out about the new hardware the Imperials have (it only has four legs!) before realising they're hoplessly outmatched in their old AT-TE.

They lure the AT-ATs into a sandstorm so they can fight Wrath-of-Khan style, where everyone is blind. Not only is the sandstorm sequence actually pretty tense, but it really leans into what the Rebel art style does well - anything that relies more on lighting and doesn't need to show a lot of detail!

It also means that the Clones have to work together with Kanan, as Kanan is the only one who can actually see during the fight (with the force and all). This lets us both see Kanan start to work out his issues with the Clones (although he never fully trusts them in this episode), but we also see that the Clones have genuinely missed working with a Jedi.

Once free of the storm, the Phantom leaves and the Clones charge head-on with the AT-ATs. It's really cool seeing something so obviously prequel-trilogy coming right up against something so iconically original trilogy. Rebels has started to blend both trilogies together as a way of emphasing that Star Wars is more than just two sets of three films, but it's six (now eight!) films that work together, along with the TV shows.

Obviously Kanan returns to save the Clones, even though he's still not fully worked out his issues with them. And AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT the Star Destroyer orbiting the planet had to suddenly leave so they could pick up a new Inquisitor (who's not as cool as the old Inquisitor). It's a bit of a contrivance that the ship had to leave just as the Rebels needed to escape, and there's really no reason why the new Inquisitor couldn't just meet them there.

Anyways, Rex joins the Rebels and goes back to the fleet (I guess Wolfe and Gregor stayed on the planet???) and hugs Ahsoka and that's great and MY CLONE WARS FEELS.

I like these episodes. They neatly tie in both the prevous films and The Clone Wars series, and give a nice last hurrah for some of the characters from that show. It's also a nice reminder that this show is perfectly willing to draw from all eras of Star Wars, giving it a nice cohesive feel. Also Sabine's new hair.

 

[CaptainWacky]

What actually did happen to Gregor and Wolfe? Did they just not want to explain "these two characters are different characters from Rex!" every time they appeared?

 

[The Tomtrek]

What actually did happen to Gregor and Wolfe? Did they just not want to explain "these two characters are different characters from Rex!" every time they appeared?

According to Pablo Higaldo in one of the Rebels Recons, they stayed behind on the planet and made their new home in the AT-AT.


Episode 205 - Always Two There Are

Hey, Rex is still around! I remember when these episodes first aired there was the worry that we'd never see him again after his first appearance. But now he's very much part of the Rebellion, and makes a great Uncle to the Ghost Family. Kanan still doesn't totally trust him - especially after he starts to question how he's training Ezra.

Ezra decides to escape from the bickering by joining Sabine, Zeb and Chopper on a mission to get supplies from an old Republic base. We actually saw a couple of these in The Clone Wars, although not since season 1!

The run down base makes a nice setting for our first meeting with the new Inquisitors (apart from a brief appearance from one of them at the end of the last episode):

We have The Fifth Brother, who looks kind of creepy but is actually kind of boring as a character. He doesn't have the menace that the previous Inquisitor did, instead relying more on brute force.

Then there's The Seventh Sister (voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar!) who is better, as she actually seems somewhat cunning and creepy, and has cool little probe droids that she talks to.

What I like about these two Inquisitors is that they don't really get along. In fact, they didn't even know that the other would be there. It shows that, like other Dark Side users, the Inquisitors are just as liable to kill each other than they are to kill the Jedi they're hunting. We also learn that the Inquisitor we saw last season was the Grand Inquisitor, and these two want that job. To be honest, having the show bringing in more Inquisitors so soon after the last one died seems a bit forced. I guess they couldn't really get James Earl Jones in for a lot of episodes, so instead of Darth Vader (who, yeah, does come with his own problems) we get these two. They're OK, but not as good as Jason Issacs.

The Inquisitors manage to capture both Ezra and Sabine, meaning that this episode actually manages to work in some good Zeb character moments as he tries to rescue them. Zeb's always been kind of one dimensional, sometimes he's the dumb strong one (Jayne) and sometimes he's literally a child running around with Ezra. But here we get to see him form a plan, trick the Inquisitors and just get away from them with Ezra and Sabine (Chopper helped!). It's nice to actually see him do something!

This episode also has a nice creepy atmosphere. We get to see The Inquisitors and The Seventh Sister's little droids stalk the dark space station looking for the Rebels, and that's fun.

Overall... it's pretty good. I don't think either of these new Inquisitors have quite the menace or threat of the Grand Inquisitor, and this episode certainly isn't as big a game changer as "Rise of the Old Masters" was, but it's a good enough episode to set up the continuing threat for the season.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 206 - Brothers of the Broken Horn

Oh hey, Hondo's back.

This show really likes to focus on the idea that the crew of the Ghost is structured like a family, with Hera and Kanan as the parents, Zeb, Sabine and Ezra as the kids, Chopper at the cat, and now Rex as the cool Uncle. This is fine, and when it works it really adds a lot to the show. But it does mean we do also have to have episodes where the moody younger child is an idiot and spends the whole episode being an idiot only to be saved by the cat.

And that's what this episode is. Ezra, fed up with being told to do his Jedi training and do his chores, runs away to help who he thinks is Vizago (from the end of last season) - but it turns out to be Hondo!

OK, let's just say it right here: Hondo looks like utter shit in the Rebels art style.

I mean seriously.

I mean I know the Rebels budget is a lot lower than Clone Wars, but still... he used to look like this!

He used to have, like, detail in his face and everything. I hate how Hondo looks in Rebels.

Hondo as a character here is... OK? The thing about Hondo, that actually made him interesting in Clone Wars, is that he wasn't just a pirate who usually ended up doing to the good thing because that's what people should do. He was an actual villain a lot of the time - again, remember he once almost sold Ahsoka into slavery. Here he's... just kind of a double-crossing asshole?

He claims he won Vizago's ship from him in a card game (which Ezra believes because he's dumb) and they go off to trade some power generators to Azmorigan - the fat pink dude from the Lando episode.

I guess someone really likes this character? That, and it means they don't have to spend money making a new character model. But I certainly wasn't early awaiting the return of this classic character... The best part of this entire sequence is when he betrays them (because of course he does) and it means Chopper can save the day with literal guns blazing.

Turns out Vizago was actually captured the whole time! We've seen this character like twice before now and he wasn't that interesting either of those times, but I guess he's fine here. Again, it's hard to care about him getting his ship back, but at least he calls Ezra out for being an idiot.

I do like how Hondo basically fucks off in the Phantom as soon as things go bad (classic Hondo) only to be stuck with the autopilot bringing him right to the Ghost (PROGRAMMED BY CHOPPER, THE REAL HERO HERE). It's also fun trying to see him try and con the Ghost crew (who get, like, two scenes in this whole episode).

One odd thing... Rex is right there when Hondo is talking to the Ghost crew, but he never seems to pipe up about knowing who Hondo is. I can't actually remember if Rex and Hondo ever directly met on-screen during The Clone Wars, but he definitely would have been aware of who he was from Anakin and Obi-Wan talking about him.

This episode is OK I guess? It does bring Hondo back and he is fun, but it also heavily features Ezra Being Dumb and two side characters I really couldn't give a shit about... but at least Chopper gets stuff to do.


Episode 207 - Wings of the Master

You know what's weird? We're now in season 2 of this show and we've never really had an episode that's actually about a lot of the crew. Sure, we've had tons of Kanan and Ezra episodes, but characters like Hera and Sabine really get the short end of the stick when it comes to time spent actually developing their character.

But good news! This is an episode that's actually about Hera for once!

We start with Phoenix squadron getting totally beaten when trying to break through the blockade of a planet. I have to admit that I do kind of like it when we see the Empire win in some of these battles, specifically because the Rebels really shouldn't be winning any major battles at this point.

But it means that Hera (and Sabine and Zeb) have to travel to the planet Shantipole to meet a crazy ship designer, who has a new strong ship prototype that could help in this very situation.

Spoiler: It's a B-Wing (or 'Blade Wing' as they call it here), and it's orange (or red?), and it's great.

The episode is basically about Hera convincing the designer (Quarrie) to let them use the prototype, and giving it a proper test fight. But while this isn't much of a plot, it does let us get a much needed look into Hera's character. Mainly that flying is her life, ever since she saw the Y-Wings flying during the Clone Wars (WAY BACK IN SEASON 1, WE SAW THAT), and that she left her entire family behind just to do that. It's not the most in-depth look into her character, yeah, but it's the best we've ever had.

Everything on the planet with the B-Wing is really rather fun. It helps that the B-Wing is actually a really cool ship, and one we never really got to have a good look at flying during Return of the Jedi. But now we get an extended sequence of Hera flying it through the valleys of Shantipole (complete with music that's VERY VERY SIMILAR TO JAMES HONER'S ROCKETEER THEME, I'M ON TO YOU KEVIN KINER) and it's actually just quite a fun sequence.

And we eventually get to see the B-Wing save the day as it destroys the Imperial ship with the giant laser it apparently now has even though we've never seen one use anything like that before and probably never will again.

Sabine actually gets some stuff to do, namely working on the ship's weapons and sitting in the gunner's turret during the final battle. It's always nice when Sabine actually has things to do besides stand behind Ezra as he's talking. Zeb does nothing so I don't really know why he came along!

This is a really light episode, but a fun one. I think the show is learning that visually it looks a lot better when it sticks to space battles rather than anything involving the actual characters, and we get some pretty great space battles in this episode. I liked it.

 

[CaptainWacky]

The Hondo episode was like "okay, we've got Hondo in it, we don't have to bother with things like a plot or locations!"

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 208 - Blood Sisters

What's this... a... a... Sabine episode??

Yes! Finally Sabine gets her own mission, although Ezra complains and insists he tags along because Ezra is the sort of character that gets mad whenever he's not the focus of an episode.

They're tasked with meeting a courier from Coruscant, who turns out to be a Gonk droid! Gonk droids are cool, so I'm happy with this. The only trouble is that also hunting for the Gonk droid is a bounty hunter from Sabine's past: Ketsu Onyo. As this is someone from Sabine's past, it means we actually get to find out more about Sabine! We knew she used to be in the Imperial Academy, but now we know that she escaped with Ketsu. We also find out that they had both wanted to join the Black Sun as Bounty Hunters, which Ketsu eventually did, while Sabine joined the Rebels.

Ketsu as a character is... ok? Obviously we've never heard of her before, so her suddenly coming in and having a history with Sabine means we as the audience have to learn a lot about their relationship just by what people are saying, not how they're acting. We're told Sabine used to be different before she was a Rebel, but of course we never see that. In the same way, we're told that they were once good friends (LIKE, BLOOD SISTERS I GUESS??) but we never see that and so just have to believe it when the characters say it. Gina Torres does a good job at voicing Ketsu, but if she was at the academy at the same time as Sabine then she must be roughly the same age, and I don't think Gina Torres really sounds like a teenager (or maybe it's just because I know how old she is that it doesn't work).

For the first part of the episode, Ezra hangs around being really really annoying, butting in every other line with obvious statements I guess for the audience's sake ("Wait... you two used to be friends??!!??") but really it's just annoying. Thankfully he gets ditched halfway through the episode so we can just spend time with Sabine and Ketsu (and Chopper).

The second half really picks up, as it goes from Ketsu almost killing Sabine trying to get the droid (with Chopper saving the day once again), to then working together when an Imperial ship turns up. I do think that Ketsu goes from "I'll kill my ex-best friend to get this droid" to "I'll help her and deliver it to the Rebels instead" a bit too quickly. I think it's partly due to the fact that they have tried to squeeze a lot of story into this single episode, so elements like this sometimes feel a bit rushed.

It is good to see Sabine on her own taking charge and being awesome, though. And it's good to see how, when Chopper gets captured, she'll risk her neck to save him, meaning that Chopper then won't leave until she's rescued later on. Chopper knows who his friends are.

This episode has a pretty weak first half and a pretty good (if rushed) second half, but it's a long overdue Sabine-focused episode, and that's just great. We even get a cameo from R2-D2 at the end when they relieved the Gonk droid, so that's nice.


Episode 209 - Stealth Strike

This episode starts with Ezra being probably the most useless he's ever been: While on the bridge of Phoenix Home with Commader Sato, Ezra manages to use the force to say "Something is about to happen" just before the ship gets pulled out of hyperspace by a new Imperial ship. That's Deanna Troi levels of insight and usefulness there.

Anyway, Sato and Ezra are captured and it's up to the crew of the Ghost to rescue them, or specifically it's up to Kanan and Rex (because Rex knows Imperial protocol and because they needed an episode together). So this is the episode where Rex and Kanan get to work out their problems and start to get along. This is pretty similar to what Sabine and Ketsu have to do in the previous episode, but it works much better here because not only do we know Kanan and Rex as characters, we have also directly seen what the Clones did to the Jedi (and specifically to Kanan, if you read his comic). However, like the Ketsu / Sabine relationship it does feel a bit rushed. We do start to see them work well together as a team when fighting stormtroopers, but when Rex is captured Kanan is all "I have to go rescue... MY FRIEND" and I don't know if the episode really got them up to the level of being 'friends', rather than people who didn't hate each other any more (well, Rex never hated Kanan in the way Kanan hated Rex).

Ezra is his usually good-at-everything self (apart from that wonderful insight at the start of the episode), which is OK I guess. BUT he does make one big mistake, which results in one of the best Chopper moments ever: He accidentally stuns Kanan and Rex (who are dressed as Stormtroopers) while escaping, and tries to play it off as them being shot by stormtroopers in a firefight... only to have Chopper immediately rat him out by playing back a holorecording of Ezra shooting them. See, Chopper is an asshole to people who treats him badly, but as we saw last episode he's pretty cool with people who are nice to him.

I like the Interdictor cruiser! It's a nice thing to pull out of the Legends canon and it looks cool and it actually makes sense as a weapon the Empire would design. I'm not sure why Sabine would know all about it when she was just a cadet on Mandalore but whatever.

I also like the Commander of the ship, Admiral Titus. Not only does he actually seem pretty competent (he instantly knows who Sato, Ezra and Rex are because he's actually on the ball) but he also comes across as an actual threat - he does actually torture Rex in this episode. But the best thing about him is that they made him look like someone who would totally be a background Imperial at Elstree studios in 1976, complete with sideburns.

It should be noted that although Ezra manages to free himself, and Rex and Kanan manage to free Sato, it is once again Chopper who saves the day by sabotaging the Interdictor's gravity wells to pull in all the other Imperial ships. This was 100% Chopper's plan and it works perfectly and saves everyone, and then Ezra has the balls to say it was a "team effort". This is why Chopper hates you, Ezra!

Also the smaller Imperial ships crashing into the Inderdictor looks cool.

This is a fun episode that lets us see Kanan and Rex become friends (apparently) and introduce a new Imperial threat that we probably won't see again for ages.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I didn't see the point of the "Sabine used to be a bounty hunter!" thing. She already has a lot of unexplored backstory with being part of a powerful Madalorian family and her time at the Imperial Academy. And her old friend just went from "I'm going to kill you for some reason!" to "we're friends for some reason!" out of nowhere.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 210 - The Future of the Force

Uh oh! It looks like The Inquisitors are kidnapping babies! Ahsoka has learnt of these disappearances and asks Kanan and Ezra to- wait, Ahsoka? Ahsoka's in this episode?

Remember at the end of Season 1 when Fulcrum was revealed to be Ahsoka and it was a huge thing to bring back such a fan-favourite character? And then remember when she didn't really do a lot during the Season 2 premiere - but at least she was there, right? And remember when she didn't appear for like the next 8 episodes??? Seriously, if you're going to bring back a character like Ahsoka (A VERY GOOD THING) then it's kind of annoying to barely ever see her!

But hey, she's here now (and still great) and she needs Kanan and Ezra's (and Zeb's?) help to find out what the Inquisitors are doing.

So what this means is that we have an episode basically built around Kanan, Ezra and Zeb running away from the Inquisitors trying to save some babies. Although that's not the most amazing premise, it's actually executed pretty well. The Inquisitors come across as a legitimate threat - moreso than they did in "Always Two There Are" - which means we do feel like there's an actual threat to these babies. It helps that, for whatever reason, the Inquisitors aren't actually trying to kill the babies, just capture them. If they were trying to kill the babies there would essentially be no threat because, hey, they're not going to kill actual babies on this show (this isn't Clone Wars!). But now there's an actual possibility that The Inquisitors might actually win. They don't, of course, but still!

The best thing about this episode, and arguably the entire reason why this episode exists in the first place, is the climax where we see Ahsoka face off against both Inquisitors. Firstly, we see them both defeat Kanan and Ezra (the Seventh Sister just uses the force to knock Ezra back because she just doesn't have time for someone like him, which is great), so when Ahsoka not only holds her own against them but almost defeats them it's a great way to show just how powerful she has become. For people who have watched The Clone Wars, we already knew that Ahsoka was a great fighter even when she was still a Padawan (she could hold her own against Grievous and Ventress, at least) but now we see that not only is she a stronger fighter, but a more mature one. I guess by making her this powerful it meant they couldn't have her as part of the crew on a week-to-week basis, like they did with Rex, because she would basically win any fight anyway... but I still wish we could see the character more!

So... why were The Inquisitors capturing force sensitive babies? There's an obvious parallel between this episode and the Clone Wars episode "Children of the Force" - Ahsoka even comments on the similarities herself. Back when I reviewed that episode, I suggested that the most likely answer that still made sense in the current continuity would be that they were going to be raised as Inquisitors. That's still the most likely answer after this episode, especially after we find out that they don't really have individual identities (they're just "The Seventh Sister" or "The Fifth Brother", no actual names), so you could easily see Palpatine trying to raise children in this way. Anyway there's still not an actual answer for this but hey!

It should be noted that at no point during this episode does Ahsoka make the most adorable face at any of the babies and that's a MAJOR MISSED OPPORTUNITY IF YOU ASK ME.

This is a pretty good episode. Admittedly the presence of Ahsoka and her fight scene are easily the best things about it, but the rest of the episode still manages to hold it's own. This is even an episode with a lot of Ezra where he's not really annoying, so there's that!


Episode 211 - Legacy

Oh boy, Ezra's having visions about his parents, which means I guess we're having another "Ezra gets really mopey about his parents" episode.

It turns out that Kanan and Hera have been looking for his parents ever since the events of "Gathering Forces", but have been unable to discover which of the thousands of prison planets they have been sent to. As luck would have it, Ezra is able to 'use the force' (pick at random) a name from a list of prisoners to find someone who might know more about his parents. And he does! And they're on Lothal! They have to go back to Lothal!

This is all fine and good until a whole bunch of Star Destroyers turn up, along with the Inquisitors (Ezra, like a dumbass, accidentally let slip the location of their base to one of The Seventh Sister's probe droids in the last episode). So now The Ghost and the rest of Phoenix Squadron have to escape before they're captured by the Empire.

To the episode's credit, the escape sequence is very well done. Ezra spends most of it being really angry that he's being prevented from going to Lothal, but at least this time his being an annoying brat at least feels justified by the story. When The Inquisitors arrive, Kanan has to stop Ezra from taking on both Inquisitors by himself - a typically dumb Ezra move but, again, one that feels natural considering the emotional state of the character.

We also get to see some awesome Hera flying skills (with Sabine as co-pilot!) as she rams into a Star Destroyer to destroy it's tractor beam, so that Phoenix Home can escape. It's a pretty great sequence!

Finally, eventually, Kanan and Ezra arrive on Lothal (which has apparently been abandoned by the Imperials somewhat for reasons that aren't really explained) and manage to track down who they were looking for by following a white loth-cat (which Ezra saw in his vision something something something). The guy's name is Ryder Azadi, the ex-governor of Lothal who knew Ezra's parents in prison. There's two important things to note about Ryder Azadi: 1) He's voiced by Clancy Brown, who is cool and all but this guy is no Savage Oppress. 2) I think he has a really really weird face and I can't stop thinking about how weird his face is every time he's onscreen and it's really off-putting.

I think it's his tiny eyes on his giant head??

So this episode pretty much lives or dies on how much you care about Ezra's parents. And I kinda... don't? This episode doesn't help, with Ryder presenting them to Ezra as basically perfect people who were inspired by Ezra's brave transmission (at the end of the last season) to escape and save everyone and they were amazing and left no one behind and died saving everyone wow seriously guys they were so amazing please care about them. Ezra as a character has a problem of being good at everything for no real reason, so his parents being these annoying perfect people just makes that problem worse.

At least they're dead, though! To this episode's credit, Ezra's parents are said to be dead which is pretty much the best way for them to be. It means that Ezra still has them as somewhat of an inspiration, but doesn't have to keep moping about how much he wants to find them.

This episode is kind of messy. It's an actually pretty good escape sequence sandwiched between a totally different plot about Ezra's parents that, yeah, I still kind of don't care about.


Episode 212 - A Princess on Lothal

The episode picks up right where "Legacy" left off, with Ezra coming to terms with the news of his parents death, still with Ryder Azadi and Kanan on Lothal. Hera is speaking to Kanan (via hologram) and tells him that Senator Organa is sending some ships to Lothal to help reinforce the Rebel fleet.

It turns out these ships are being brought by Bail's daughter, Leia!

Soooooo okay, it's Princess Leia. The last time we saw her she was a newborn baby being taken by Bail Organa to Alderaan, and here she is 16 years later. The episode gives us all the information we need to let us know that she's the same character we saw back in Revenge of the Sith (i.e., her name is Leia and she's Bail's daughter) so at no point are they even trying to hide the fact that we know she's actually Vader's daughter.

It's actually really fun seeing Leia here. We get to see her play as being part of the Empire, while secretly aiding the Rebels. The fact that she does this is something that only gets hinted at in Star Wars, but we get to see it directly here. And she's pretty good at it! She's obviously more experienced at doing this than Ezra, and it shows. What's nice is that when she talks about how she wants to help people, and why she works for the Rebels, it's very easy to see a lot of Padmé in her. Since this is the first time we've ever been able to get a portrayal of Leia after the prequels were made, the character we see here really does feel like she could be the daughter of the characters we know, and still the same character we saw in the original trilogy.

Julie Dolan's performance really should be highlighted for how good it is. While she's obviously not a 16 year old Carrie Fisher, she is definitely Princess Leia. It's a veru good voice to play a cartoon version of Leia in the same way that, say, Stephen Stanton is obviously different from Peter Cushing but still plays a really good Tarkin.

Soooo the actual plot of the episode. It's pretty good? The Empire locks down the three ships Leia brought (because her ships keep getting stolen by the Empire!) so Leia and the Rebels (and Ryder Azadi because damnit they paid Clancy Brown and they're going to use him) have to find out a way to steal them.

It's actually a really great scene! I didn't realise how much I wanted to see the Ghost do strafing runs on two AT-ATs until I actually saw it, but it's really cool to see.

We also get to see Kanan take down one of the AT-AT's single-handedly... and so does Leia. Does it mess things up if Leia has seen both Kanan and Ezra in action doing Jedi things? I guess not? It's not like she ever seemed surprised by anything Luke can do (although, really, she's never there to see him do most of it!) so I guess they can get away with having her know there's other Jedi out there. I think it all depends on how they end Kanan and Ezra's stories when the show ends, otherwise it makes no sense for her not to mention to Luke that there are totally other lightsaber wielding force users out there.

They manage to free all three of the ships - cool looking hammerhead corvettes that will just probably sit in the background of the fleet from now on and not really do anything important!

This is a good episode. They manage to work one of the big three characters of to the original trilogy into an episode without her overpowering the plot or having it feel forced or unnatural. Plus they manage to portray Leia in a way that neatly comes before the character we know already. Also cool action scenes!

 

[CaptainWacky]

Yeah but I bet they'd never have put Luke or Han in such a throwaway episode.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 213 - The Protector of Concord Dawn

Although we've already had one Sabine-focused episode this season, here we are again with another one!

While the first one was devoted to exploring Sabine's backstory and her relationship with Ketsu, this episode is focused more on who she is as a person, and her relationship with other Mandalorians.

In looking for new ways to avoid the Empire, Sabine suggests going through Concord Dawn - a Mandolorian planet under protection by a group called The Protectors. Sabine thinks they should go in showing force, while Kanan and Hera think that diplomacy is the better option. Going with Hera's plan, she and Sabine and a few nameless pilots go to Concord Dawn in A-Wings to negotiate... and get totally wiped out by Fenn Rau and his Protectors.

Again, I do kind of like it when the Rebels totally get their asses handed to them. I think it's a bit danger of this show to have them winning at everything all the time, which really doesn't fit the time period as at this point the Rebel Alliance really hasn't got their shit together yet.

Anyway, Hera almost dying is what lets us see Sabine's affection for Hera - namely that she's super mad at Fenn Rau for almost killing her and vows vengeance. Sabine's always been a little too trigger (and explosion) happy but here she is perfectly willing to kill Fenn Rau. I suppose you can chalk it up to her Mandolorian upbringing, especially as we'll find out later that she probably wasn't brought up by the most peaceful Mandalorians.

Despite Kanan going on his own, Sabine stows away on the Phantom anyway so that she can face Fenn Rau herself. They agree to try and reason with him first, and then destroy his ships afterwards if that fails. It's here we find out that Kanan is actually familiar with Rau, having fought with him (but never meeting him) during the Clone Wars. In a nice bit of synergy, the issue of the Kanan comic that showed the actual battle both characters fought in was published on the same day this episode originally aired.

It means that Kanan can approach Rau on a similar level, both being old soldiers of the Clone Wars. The way Kanan is continuously trying to find a peaceful and diplomatic way to resolve the situation shows that, on some level, he's a bit of an idealist - still trying to push peace where he can, as was the Jedi way (or at least, it was supposed to be).

This is all fine and good until Sabine gets caught and starts going off about her clan and her house and challenging Fenn Rau to a fight to the death. It turns out that Sabine's family is actually part of Clan Vizla... as in Pre Vizla, leader of the Deathwatch! We even find out that Sabine's mother was (or maybe still is) a member of Deathwatch, meaning that she was probably present all during the Maul/Mandalore arc in Season 5 of The Clone Wars. We also learn that the other Mandolorians fucking hate Deathwatch, which makes sense on account of them basically taking over Mandolore and putting Maul in charge and generally messing the entire planet up (which probably led to it being occupied by the Empire).

Although the key part of this episode is that when Sabine is face-to-face with Fenn Rau - a man she has said she will kill - she instead only disarms him, literally saying "There are alternatives to killing"... and then blowing everything up, because she's Sabine.

This means that they can capture Fenn Rau, which solves the problem... somehow... They sort of say that Fenn Rau has to agree to help them if he's captured because he wouldn't want the Empire to know that he's captured... they sort of rush this part.

But more importantly Hera is fine and Sabine holds her hand and I appreciate that because the Hera/Sabine relationship is one of the most underrated ones of the show and frankly I'll take what I can get.

This episode isn't quite there. It does a lot of interesting exposition about the Mandolorians, and Sabine, but ultimately the plot itself seems a little thin. It's certainly very rushed at the end. This isn't the first episode to have suffered from only having 25 minutes to tell it's story, but this episode in particular almost feels like a classic part 1 of a multi-part Clone Wars episode... that then gets awkwardly resolved after one episode because this show doesn't to multi-episode stories any more!

What I will say, though, is that they make Sabine angry and slightly broody and out for revenge in a way that feels a lot better than anything they've ever done with Ezra. Maybe I'm just biased because I like the character more, but Ezra's moods always seemed like a sulky teenager getting mad, whereas Sabine's feels a bit more tolerable. It helps that Tiya Sircar is actually pretty great.


Episode 214 - Legends of the Lasat

This season has been pretty good at finally giving some time to characters that aren't Kanan or Ezra. We've had a Hera-heavy episode and two Sabine episodes so far, and now it's Zeb's turn!

We basically know nothing about Zeb other than he's a Lasat, and most (if not all?) of his kind were killed by the Empire (Agent Kallus was there, apparently). We also know the weapon he carried - a bo-rifle was only carried by the Lasan high honour guard.

But wait, there's other Lasat! And they call Zeb Captain! Apparently Zeb was actually Captain of the Lasan Honour guard, in charge of protecting the Lasan Royal Family, which raises the question... just how old is Zeb??

Zeb is basically the "older brother" of the Ghost family, and a lot of the time (especially last season) he acts like a teenager, especially when he's arguing around Ezra. But apparently he was a really high ranking member of an honour guard? Several years before the show started? Is he an adult? The show doesn't really treat him like one most of the time, but I guess he must be. However old he is, there's really nothing about Zeb that makes him at all believable as someone who used to hold a high rank like that... it's weird.

However, we do see that Zeb essentially has been living with survivor's guilt this whole time, and is mad at himself for letting his people die - something he starts to overcome in this episode. It's the most character development Zeb has actually had!

Anyway, the other Lasat apparently believe in some sort of prophecy that will lead them to a new homeworld, and believe that Zeb has a part to play in it. And BOY do they keep going on about the prophecy again and again and again like it's this super important thing, but it mostly sounds like the most generic spiritual nonsense they could come up with.

To be fair there is some interesting stuff in there, mainly that they use their own interpretation of The Force (which they call 'Ashla' - a name for the light side of the force from the early drafts of Star Wars). We've seen non-Jedi use the force before, most prominently the Nightsisters, and it's something that will keep coming up in new Star Wars works (Rogue One and The Force Awakens, specifically).

Zeb uses his bo-rifle to find the location of their new home planet (SOMEHOW????) and they set off for it, being pursuied by Agent Kallus who is using Hondo to track the Ghost.

Oh yeah, Hondo's in this episode? He's okay, I guess? He's the one who brings the Lasat to the Ghost crew, but then betrays them over to the Empire and helps them track down the Ghost. It's pretty classic Hondo, but I dunno... he still doesn't feel as good as he does in Clone Wars. I think it's mostly that I prefer crime-lord Hondo over on-his-own Hondo (but this show really doesn't have any budget to give him a gang!).

In order to get to the new Lasat homeworld, the Ghost has to pass through a Star Cluster. This sequence is pretty much the only memorable part of the episode because of just how pretty it looks, especially for Rebels (again, this show looks so much better when it sticks to ship shots).

Keven Kiner even goes all Philip Glass with the music, in a break from the traditional Star Wars style that gives the scene a really unique and mysterious feel.

Despite the fact that this sequence looks and sounds amazing, it's still kind of dumb. See, the star cluster has super high gravity which disintergrates the TIES following the Ghost, and stops Kallus from following them. However Zeb is able to again use his bo-rifle to (SOMEHOW????) stop the Ghost from getting crushed and also (SOMEHOW??????) plot a hyperspace course directly to the new planet. Like, Zeb's bo-rifle basically becomes a magical stick that does anything the plot wants it to, for no real reason. It's really dumb.

But the ending. OH MAN THE ENDING. Zeb finds the new planet and takes the Lasat down there, only to find out that it's full of other Lasat who have been living there this whole time! And it's an amazing place!

...only this show has nowhere near the budget to actually show us all that, so all we get is Zeb returning to the ship and describing all the cool things he saw. It's such a massively weak ending as this is the whole payoff for the episode and we never actually get to see it for ourselves!

Yeah this episode is really, really dumb and pretty bad. Which is a shame as there's some actually pretty good character development for Zeb in there and the whole star cluster sequence is artistically amazing but... yeah...