Rebels: "Fire Across the Galaxy" (Ep. 1.14)

"Yep, you definitely missed me."


The rescue attempt continues, and I'm just going to say, right now, that this is going to be full of spoilers, because I'm not going to hold anything back.

This is the episode where everything takes off and the title of the show really means something. Which means that we find out that there are, indeed, other rebel groups working in a coordinated manner with each other spread across the galaxy and, actually, our rebel group is one of those groups. We get the confirmation that Bail Organa is a part of it, which, come on, who didn't know that? So not really a spoiler.

But we also get the reveal on who Fulcrum is, something I had figured out or, at least, hoped I had figured out, so it was great to find that I was correct. A very welcome confirmation, and I was going to reveal that, but I've changed my mind, You should just watch the series. It was quite gratifying to see the reaction of my kids to who Fulcrum is, which is why, I guess, I'm not telling you. You should watch.

The big deal in the episode is the final duel between Kanan and the Inquisitor. And, when I say "final," I do mean final. Ezra is also involved in the duel, but it comes down to, as it should, Kanan and the Inquisitor. It's a fight, if you watch the series, you'll find you'll be longing for by the time it gets to it. Because, really, someone needs to shut the mouth of the Inquisitor.

We also get a reflected moment from A New Hope as Tarkin is given word that he needs to evacuate his star destroyer because, as it turns out, lightsabers are not good for hyperdrive engine cores. Tarkin doesn't argue in this circumstance and lives to fight another day.

However, he's not happy and brings in an old friend to help deal with the fallout of the loss of the Jedi prisoner, the death of the Inquisitor, and the first coordinated effort of multiple rebel cells. Oh, come on, you don't really need me to tell you who the old friend is, do you? I'll give you a hint: I recently reviewed their first meeting during season three of Clone Wars. You can find that review here.

This was a great final episode for season one and had everything you could reasonably want as season finale. No cliffhanger, which is also good, unless you count the revelation of whom Fulcrum is and the arrival of Tarkin's pal as cliffhangers. You could make an argument for that, I suppose, though there's nothing in the specific plot that you could call a cliffhanger ending.

I'm bought in, now, and am looking forward to getting started on season two. Whenever I get around to that.

That said, I'm not going to do a season one recap. To put it simply, it got off to rather a rough start but got better as it went on, working up to several really great episodes here at the end of the season. Still, I'm not ready to say that Rebels is as good as Clone Wars. Rebels still hasn't delved into the same kinds of philosophical struggles that Clone Wars was willing to take on, which was one of the things that made Clone Wars such a strong series. Rebels is well worth watching, though.

A Pretty Dead Thing (pictures I like)

It only looks alive...

...like so many things in the dark days.

A Dead Thing (pictures I like)

Not even the beach is safe from the days when the light grows short.

Clone Wars -- "Shadow Warrior" (Ep. 4.4)

-- Who a person truly is cannot be seen with the eye.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

After the horrible titles of the last three episodes, we finally get a good title. Of course, it has absolutely nothing to do with the episode. Seriously, the term "shadow warrior" never even comes up. Unless it was mentioned in the bit of dialogue during which my children were arguing, which would not surprise me, but, just in case that's what happened, I tried looking it up and couldn't find it referring to anything other than the title itself, so I'm going to go with the title having nothing to do with the episode. Which makes it kind of a wasted effort.

As you can see from the picture, we're back with the Gungans again. While doing my "shadow warrior" research, I found that this episode was originally meant to be the lead episode of season four, which in my mind would have worked much better considering the beating the Gungan army took on Mon Calamari. Here, the Gungan army, due to the machinations of the Separatists, is preparing to march against the humans to take over Theed.

I think I'm seeing a pattern. Quarren against Mon Cala, now Gungans against the Naboo. It makes me wonder if we're going to see more of this. At least this is just a one-shot and not a whole arc.

Which is not to say that this is a bad episode. It's easily better than the previous arc, and it has a few really great moments in it, like when Jar Jar comes face to face with General Grievous and plays with the height adjustment on his chair to cover his discomfort. That moment is a real gem. And the confrontation between Dooku and Anakin is good. Previously, Dooku took on Obi-Wan and Anakin simultaneously without any real concern but, this time, it's just Anakin against Dooku, and Dooku feels the need for droid backups. He is clearly worried during the duel.

The real issue with this episode is that it feels rushed. They could have taken out the middle segment of the previous arc and made two two-parters and done much better. That and the Gungans... well, the Gungans manage to capture Grievous, something no one else has been able to do, and that feels somewhat, I don't know, either forced or out of place. It's like, "No, look! The Gungans really are competent!" And I get that they want to make a statement that Jar Jar is not representative, but just sticking that in without giving us a basis for believing it makes it feel like one of Jar Jar's fumbles.

When a Dark Angel Falls (pictures I like)

Things happen when the days start growing shorter and fall is in the air.
Or, well, on the ground, in this case.
The barrier grows thin.
Bad things can happen.
They usually do.

The Toilet War

I think my toilet is out to get me. Seriously. If there are sentient toilets in the world, mine is one of them. I'm sure it has a mind of its own. If I hadn't already written a story about an insane tea kettle,

I would have to write one about the toilet. I'm not sure there's any other household... Would you call a toilet an "appliance"? I'm not thinking so, but I can't think of a better term. Anyway, I'm not sure there's anything more frightening than a toilet that's out to get you. Well, I already hate toilets, so, maybe, that's just me.

All of the things with the toilet began a year ago or so. I talked about the first time it had to be fixed here. In that post I talk about the thing that "should have been a pretty easy fix," which didn't ever get directly addressed because of the complications which occurred in trying to fix it. To put it simply, the leak, the thing that was making all the noise and keeping me up at night, was water running from the tank to the bowl because the flapper wasn't sealing adequately.

Like I said, putting in a new flapper shouldn't have been an issue, and it wasn't. Said flapper was one I put in. However, somewhere in fixing the other issues that developed, the flapper quit leaking, so it didn't get replaced.

Then, this happened. If that's not a horror story, I don't know what is. I mean, it's like that dream where you're going to class or, maybe, already in class, and you suddenly realize you're naked. Except, you know, for real.

Again, everything was fine with the toilet... Until it started talking all night again. AND KEEPING ME AWAKE! What the actual fuck?

But I got to play with food coloring in the tank trying to figure out exactly what it was that was leaking, which turned out to be the flapper. Of course. Because it makes so much sense that a piece of rubber covering a hole should be, I don't know, defective?

Look, here's the thing, flappers in toilets NEVER got replaced when I was a kid. They were these heavy pieces of rubber that I think you could have killed someone with if you'd thrown one at a person. That's not how flappers are made anymore, just so you know. Why do I know? Because I had to replace the relatively new flapper in my toilet because it was draining water like a sieve. And what I found out is that they're made to, basically, degrade, now, so that you have to replace them frequently. Seriously, you can buy multi-packs of the things (kind of like light bulbs) so that you have them on hand any time one needs replacing. Again, what the actual fuck?

So the toilet is fixed. Again. Again. But I'm sure it's out to get me. It's like hearing voices, except I'm hearing my toilet. I don't quite understand, yet, what it's saying, but it's definitely saying something. Maybe if I just move a little closer...

You know, if I don't come back, you'll know wha...

Landscapes (pictures I like)