Monday, January 27, 2020

Rebels: "Heroes of Mandalore: Part One" (Ep. 4.01)

-- "Blowing things up definitely runs in your family."

Man, talk about heart-wrenching... Which is something you can't often do in Star Wars and even less so in the animated shows. But this episode...
Well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Oh, fine, I know someone is going to make some comment about Han's death or this thing or that thing that have made people (my wife) cry, so, sure, Star Wars has those moments. But, mostly, it doesn't. Those are not the moments people think of when they think about Star Wars.
Except Rogue One.

Anyway, that's all beside the point.

The point is that Sabine leads a raid to rescue her father, who is being held captive by the Empire.
Yes, of course, it's a trap.
Also, Ezra learns how to use a jet pack. Sort of.

But the episode is kind of tragic. Not kind of. It is.
They played the sad Star Wars music as the end credits.
See what I'm saying?


"Wow, this just got more and more..."
"Interesting, The word you're looking for is interesting."
"Nope. Just more."

"Are you a Jedi?"
"Let's hope so."

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Rebels: "Zero Hour: Part Two" (Ep. 3.22)

-- "There's a future for us, one where we're all free, but it's up to us to make it happen."

Spoiler alert: Kallus didn't die. I'm a bit surprised. Not that the way he didn't die wasn't cool, but I really expected that he would be one of the characters that they ended. Yes, that means some characters got ended in this season finale.

Sabine returned, so that was cool. Not that I think she'll be staying around, but involving the Mandalorians is always interesting.

And I suppose that's really all I have to say about this. These two episodes are mostly combat and anything else I could say would be spoilery.

They do leave me ready to get into season four, though, so that's where I'm heading.


"This way!
The other way! The other way!"

"This is your friend?"
"I might have made him angry."

Monday, January 13, 2020

Rebels: "Zero Hour: Part One" (Ep. 3.21)

-- "You talk too much."

As revealed in a previous episode, Thrawn discovered the identity of Fulcrum. He's able to use that knowledge in this episode to entrap our group of rebels and their fleet at Chopper Base, or whatever it's being called at this point. It's too bad; I had actually grown to like Agent Kallus. Not that we know his fate, yet, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be a good one.

As a season finale, this is a good beginning. Great big space battle. The Bendu makes an appearance. Probably his last. Or, at least, I imagine we won't see it again after part two of this, if he's even in part two.

That's about all I have to say. 
Space battle.
And some deaths.


"May the Force be with me."

Friday, January 10, 2020

Rebels: "Twin Suns" (Ep. 3.20)

-- "I didn't want any of you to be involved. Not this time."

Wow! OMG!
Not at all what I expected from Obi-Wan Kenobi's first appearance in Rebels. Probably his only appearance, but I don't actually know. It's not like I'm looking ahead, but I can't see any other reason for them to bring him back into the series. This appearance, I believe, was to finally tie off a dangling plot thread from... well, from the beginning.

Not unexpectedly, Ezra sticks his nose where it doesn't belong. He is always a great example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, thinking he's more of an expert than he actually is. It gets him into trouble and, frequently, gets others into trouble, too. Especially when he gets lured into traps set by Darth Maul. How many times has that happened? I don't know; maybe this is just the second time, but it feels like a lot more than that.

That's about all I'm going to say about this episode. It's a must see.

"Maul is an old adversary, and a persistent one at that."

Monday, January 6, 2020

Rebels: "Double Agent Droid" (Ep. 3.19)

-- You are mistaking my attention to detail for an attack on your obviously fragile ego.

One might be tempted to think that I've been inspired to get back into Rebels because of the recent release of The Rise of Skywalker. One would be wrong. Actually, it was the ending to The Mandalorian which has put the fire back into me to finish Rebels. Sorry not sorry for the spoiler but the first live action appearance of the Darksaber! Well, I have to know how it ends up where it ends up because, right now, Sabine has it.
This episode has nothing to do with any of that.

No, this episode is a spy mission gone awry. On the surface, it's a chance for us to get to know more about AP-5 and Wedge... except that that doesn't really happen. AP-5 is the same as he always is. Well, except for something that happens at the end of the episode, a something that is probably the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in Star Wars. That doesn't sound quite right. Star Wars, once accepted as a world setting isn't bizarre at all. I can't think of anything from any of the movies or animated shows that I would call bizarre -- okay, a case can be made for the Holiday Special being bizarre, but I haven't seen that since it first aired, so I'm not making that case -- but this was bizarre. So bizarre that my wife looked up from whatever it was she was doing that had nothing to do with watching Rebels to say, "What the fuck is going on?" I may need to watch it again.

The appearance of Wedge in the episode, which I was initially excited about, was a letdown. His entire presence seemed to hinge on a joke that he was on the mission with the two droids because no one else wanted to be. Mostly, he just hung out in the background and didn't speak. Zero character development. It was definitely a missed opportunity to give us some background on a beloved character.

In the end, though, this episode was just a stepping stone for me to get further along in the series so that I can find out what the heck is going on with the Darksaber.
Probably, you can expect a lot more Rebels reviews in the near future.



"The odds are with us."