In recent news, there has been some hints at the possibility of future Star Wars Rebels seasons being tied into the films much more than there already are. Is this a good thing? Well not totally. I do think this will become more prevalent in anything Star Wars related in the future as it seems that Disney is really serious about connecting everything that is apart of this universe. I like the idea of connecting everything but I don't like the idea of crossing over everything, what do I mean? Star Wars Rebels is a good show on its own. In fact I would say that the show gets better and better I look at it through the perspective that this is not connected to the movies but other animated shows like The Clones Wars and the books based off of the show it self. To me this should be its own universe that can build upon it self instead of having to shove in references and characters that we are already familiar with just to throw them in. I am interested in seeing the direction they take this show and how they continue to grow these characters. I don't however want to see them put in a live action movie where they would obvious cast a different actor and most likely have to change the character to fit the tone of what ever the film calls for. On top of that there is also another problem that is becoming more noticeable with the modern era of Star Wars. That is the large universe that seems to be getting smaller and smaller. No longer are we getting stories that take place in the galaxy else where or exploring a side or background character and expanding their story. Now we just focus on the main plot. The plot that we know the ending too and we know the back story too. It just feels very limiting to the stories they can tell by having so much be connected to the movies. Before everything was canon we got stories like Dark Forces and The Force Unleashed that connected to the main story but also took them in a different direction and most importantly focused on taking their characters in their own direction. I still don't see how this canon thing can work going forward, especially when there is just so much material coming out and much more to come. This will only lead to them quitting or worse, rebooting the universe and starting over from scratch. So is connecting Star Wars Rebels to films a good idea? Well it really is a "We will see" scenario here. On one hand I like to see great stories be connected but at the same time, I think that stories should stand on their own in their own mediums that they were presented on.
Maybe my mind will change but at the moment It just leaves me skeptical.
Zeb and Agent Kallus, two enemies that must work together! During their latest mission that gang get surrounded by Stormtroopers and are forced to split up. Zeb ends up having to fight Kallus alone and has to find his own way to escape. He gets on an escape pod only to be attacked by Kallus once again and they both activated the escape pod. They land on Geonosis and are stuck in an underground cave. This forces them to have to work together so they can come up with a plan to escape. It is not easy however because in this cave lies creatures as well as empire scouters above ground. So until the Rebels can find them they are stuck on this planet. Kallus tells Zeb a story about one of his first missions on Alderon and how a Lasat took out most of him men and almost killed him. Through their conversation they begin to develop a common ground with each other and being in the situation they are in they are going to have to. More creatures show up and they decided to climb the pillars to make it out. They make their way to the top only having to use a cleaver way to dodge the creatures and get to the top. Once their it becomes too cold to make their way through the surface. They find a sheltered area and Kallus realizes that what happened on Lasat was wrong and doesn't want to take credit for it.
The ghost crew make it and save Zeb taking him back to the ship. While Kallus waits for the Empire and begins to see everything differently now, taking notice that he isn't really present on his own ship. Maybe even realizing he is on the wrong side. We will have to find out later on I suppose. I really enjoyed this episode, it was simple and it is always entertaining to see two enemies having to work together and find a common ground. This reminded me a lot of Avatar: The Last Airbender that had a similar episode during the series. It wasn't what I was expecting but I can appreciate when they take the chance to give the characters more development to make them more interesting as the show goes on. Rating:
We meet Hera's father! Hera returns home in this episode of rebels. The phoenix squad is at it last leg as many of the rebel fighters are taken out by the Empire leaving their numbers dwindling. Worried that there will be no more places to hide the ships Hera has a plan to fix the problem and even give the Rebellion an asset they need. In need of a helping hand they make contact with Cham Syndulla, who is Hera's father who fought in the Clone Wars, with Mace Wind. Hera has a past grudge against her father while Kanon is really taken to him. They coordinate a plan to overtake and steal the carrier that houses these Imperial bombers and with Syndulla's experience he is a great addition to the group.
It turns out the Syndulla has a different motive and wants to blow up this station as revenge for his planet. This conflicts with our groups motive as they want the bomber ship to take back to the rebels. But Syndulla and his gang get the upper hand at first and knock out the ghost group to get the head start. They disable the hyperdrive and even begin to plant bombs through out the carrier. Luckily Hera wakes everyone up and they make a plan to go stop Syndulla from blowing up the carrier at the same time stealing the ship so the rebels can use it. This was a much better episode than last weeks but I still feel like we didn't get as much depth as we could've had. It was nice to see Hera's father and get a little hint at her past but I would've liked to have seen more. I think if this situation took place on her actually planet we could have seen more of her kind and maybe other faces from her past. The message of the day became fairly obvious by the middle of the episode and I was just waiting for what beat to hit all the way to the end. A good episode, but a fairy predictable and in-inventive one as well. Rating:
The gang are on a mission to help someone who is transmitting to them. When they get to the planet they are met by a block aide from the Empire being lead by Agent Kallus. The Phoenix Squadron engage in a battle to tie fighters and are able to fight of a few of them. Because their ships are being taken out they are forced to retreat but take a lot of casualties with them. After retreating they discuss what the new plan should be and Rex tells them about someone who will be able to help them get through the block aide and to the planet they need to get to. Kanon has Hera go to the planet to find this person who has the ship they need while he and Ezra go and get the rest of the supplies they need. The planet they get to is a planet where ships cannot physically fly from. Hera's ships crashes on a landing stripe and are barley saved from fall out the cliff. It turns out they are saved by Quarrie, the alien who lives on this planet and collects ships that fall from the sky. He tells them he is waiting for the right pilot to come and show him in order for him to give up the ship that he has and the one they need to return to the fleet with. Hera tells her story to him about why she is doing what she is doing for the Rebellion. He allows her to test drive the ship to see if she can fly it. The ship turns out to be a B-Wing, which has a combination of different elements from different ships we've seen throughout the Star Wars films and Series. Hera flies the B-Wing and while it doesn't seem to work at first, she manages to get it to fly and working just fine.
Meanwhile Ezra and Kanon get the supplies ad return to the fleet only to find out that they are about to make their second attempt at passing the block aide. They don't have the fire power yet and they aren't successful at first but Just at the right moment Hera comes in the battle with the new B-Wing ship. Luckily it is strong enough to take down the critical points of one of the empire star destroyers and the Rebels pass the block aide. They drop the supplies to the people on the planet successfully and make it back to their home base. In the end of the episode Hera becomes Phoenix Leader, a captain of the Rebel fleet and will become much more involved with the Rebellion from this point forward then she has previous. I also think that means that our group will be going on much more dangerous mission as well as battles on the front lines against the Empire. I did like the look of this new ship and even reminded me of elements from Jango Fett's ship from Attack of the Clones and I hope we get to see it in the future at some point. I was surprised that the look of it wasn't the look of the X-Wings from the original trilogy because those models were definitely the more popular used one. That being said, I appreciate the creators of the show bringing in one of the lesser known ships from the franchise and giving them some back story and fits nicely with the universe.
The episode starts off with Kanon and Rex going at each other on who should train Ezra. He goes on a mission with Zeb and Sabine just on a salvage run on a abandoned clone station.
When they get there, they notice that this ship looks strange compared to other ones. Sabine tags a door and notices that a small droid might have been watching her. The droid signals someone we assume from the empire of its location. They get power going to the whole station so they can search for the supplies.
At the Star destroyer, The Inquisitor senses their presence at the station and they decide to head there.
The group ends up searching for the medical supplies because they couldn't find them at the command console. Chopper stays and watches the console until he begins to hear noises coming from the small droid we saw from earlier. He follows the noise into a hallway and ends up getting zapped by the small droid, who begins to steal his parts. They crawl through the vents to get back to Chopper, who by then has disappeared. The one who owns the droid, is an Inquisitor who approaches Ezra and tries to capture them. Ezra and the Inquisitor engage while they try to run and end up running into the other Inquisitor from earlier. Ezra gets captured by the Inquisitors who plan to use him as bait to get the others. Zeb and Sabine end up having to create a plan to get Ezra back without calling for help from Kanon. The Inquisitor ends up using the force to throw a group of Sabine's bombs back at them and captures Sabine. Zeb fights off the small droids easily destroying them but also finding the supplies at the same time. He finds Chopper and brings him back so he can help him with escaping and saving Sabine and Ezra. Zeb fakes a call to Ezra and Sabine so the Inquisitor can think that Kanon and Ahsoka can come to the base. Zeb tricks the inquisitors and uses the ship to shoot at them and escape before they get captured again. They barely escape due to the Inquisitors using the force on ship, but they make it back to home base with each other and the medical supplies they needed. So Zeb end up saving the day and the group now knows about the new threat, its going to be interesting how they make their choices from now on. I liked this weeks episode because we not only got to see the villains in action, but we also found out that there are more than just one that the group has to worry about.
There is still tons of mystery behind them, we don't even know their names or where they come from. They mention that the Inquisitor from the 1st season was the Grand Master, which could mean that there are plenty of other Inquisitors around in the galaxy that we just don't know about. Either way it was a solid episode and I like how well the characters now work together, it going to be interesting seeing how they team up with facing the new threat in future episodes. Rating:
In this weeks episode of Rebel, the clone troopers prepare for an encounter with the empire. Agent Kallus knows that Ezra and Kanon are with Rex and the other clone troopers and comes down to the planet with AT-ATs. A sand storm occurs and they use that opportunity to hide and confuse the empire so they can buy time to escape. Ezra uses the force to take down the AT-AT with the force and they use that opening to escape from the sand storm and empire. Because of the empire interfering Ezra and Kanon and forced to leave REX and the other troopers to take on Agent Kallus alone. Rex try to take on the AT-ATs but they unfortunate just aren't strong enough to take him on and that's when Kanon decided to go back and help them. They steal an AT-AT and use it to shoot the other to take down the empire group. Agent Kallus ends up escaping and Rex and his team end up surviving. Near the end of the episode we are introduced to a brand new inquisitor, with no real context or reason why he shows up but I have a feeling he will be a new threat the group will have to worry about. Asoka and Rex reunite with each other and the clone troopers now join the Rebels in fighting the empire. This has a been a very solid start to rebels so far, everything is really feeling like Star Wars which is good, and the incorporation of the Clone Wars characters are enhancing the story. If they can keep it up with this kind of quality this could end up being one of the best seasons of any Stars Wars show ever! I already can't wait for next weeks episode and to know a bit more about that new Inquisitor that shows up toward the end. Rating:
