Rebels: "Twilight of the Apprentice -- Part One" (Ep. 2.21)

-- "There's always a bit of truth in legends."

And now for the moment I've all been waiting for...!

It's Chopper versus an inquisitor, and Chopper...

Oh, wait, no. That's not what I've been waiting for.

I may have indicated in my review of Solo that I was quite excited by the reintroduction of Darth Maul into the movies. Not that I was ever one of those huge Darth Maul fans after The Phantom Menace. In fact, I wasn't all that impressed with Darth Maul. But, the truth is, he was never supposed to be dead dead. Lucas always intended to bring him back and the only reason he didn't come back in Attack of the Clones was because Ray Park opened his mouth about it within a few weeks of the opening of Phantom, so Lucas brought in Darth Tyranus instead. Still, I can understand people not being thrilled about him being brought back. Being cut in half is pretty final...

Unless you take into account that General Grievous was a heart and a brain and eyes in a robot body. I'm assuming that's all they were able to salvage of his organics. Compared to that, Maul was a veritable treasure trove!

All of that aside, I've found Maul to be a much more interesting character since they brought him back in Clone Wars. Not right at first, but, as they've gone along, they have deepened his character and complicated his motivations. I very much want to see what they have in store for him, and I am going to be sorely aggravated if we don't get the rest of the Solo trilogy, not for Solo but for Maul.

His first appearance here in Rebels is intriguing, which is about all I'm going to say about it until I get a chance to watch part two. I guess you'll just have to come back for that.
Or go watch it yourself.

"You don't exactly outrank me anymore."

"In my book, experience outranks everything."

"Then I definitely outrank you."

Rebels: "The Mystery of Chopper Base" (Ep. 2.20)

-- There's  no such thing as a tie. You lose; you die.

Man, I want to be covering these episodes more quickly, but I'm not being able to get them in more than one every few weeks. I feel like I need to take a page out of Ferris Bueller's book or really focus on that line from that Simon & Garfunkel song:

"Slow down; you move too fast.

You've got to make the moment last."

None of which has to do with this episode.

Though maybe the rebels are feeling that way, too...?

Unlike Clone Wars, Rebels is a pretty straightforward show most of the time. It's about what it's about: no layers, no subtext, no background plots. This episode is a bit more complex. On the one hand, they have a very Hoth moment with their new base -- you know, the one Chopper found -- but, on the other, emotional tensions are high because Kanan and Ezra are about to take off with Ahsoka to "deal with" the inquisitors.

One thing is for certain, though, all of them should have learned by now to never say anything like,

"This planet may be hot, dry, and unpleasant, but at least nothing's trying to kill us."
Because as soon as you do, something will start trying to kill you. Like this:

On a normal day, maybe it wouldn't have been such a big deal, but the emotional tension, especially between Hera and Kanan, really raises the stakes. Everything feels very... final.

So, yeah, good episode. I'm hoping this is leading to more complex stories in season three, though I still have a couple more in season two to get through. Hopefully soon...

"Trust me, Hera; I'm excited. This is my excited face."

"We can argue about this later."

"You always change the subject when I start winning!"

Rebels: "The Future of the Force" (Ep. 2.10)

"We're away from trouble now."

If there's one thing I can say it's that Ahsoka knows how to make an entrance. I wonder if that's a force skill?

During Ahsoka's investigation into whom the Sith Lord is -- that would be Vader, who she doesn't know is Anakin -- she uncovers the inquisitors' interest into... something. She doesn't know what it is; she just knows they're after something. Or somethings. She also knows that if the inquisitors want something, they probably shouldn't get to have it. At the least, the rebels ought to know what it is they're after.

She recruits Kanan and Ezra to help her find out what's going on.

There's a certain amount of tension that exists in this show that didn't exist in Clone Wars. We know what happens to Anakin and Obi-Wan and many of the other characters, but we don't know what happens to Ahsoka and she's not the star of this series. It's plausible that she could go at any time, though, at this point, there's a lot of audience investment in the character, so it makes for situations like The Phantom Menace. I mean, no one expected Qui-Gon to die.

For that matter, we don't have any confirmed future inclusion for any of the characters past Rogue One, so it can leave you guessing during an episode like this.

"You would question me, Seventh Sister?"

"Only when you're wrong."