Tuesday, 17 October 2017

Star Wars Rebels Review: "Heroes of Mandalore"

Mandos Mandos Mandos Mandos
(This review contains spoilers!)

          The Ghost crew have returned one last time as we enter the final season of Star Wars Rebels. I got caught up on this show over the summer, and I have to say I’ve really enjoyed it. While it’s far from perfect, getting bite-sized bits of content from my favourite universe weekly sounds like a real treat.

          While this episode was still an overall fun and enjoyable return for the characters, it overall felt like it really didn’t belong as the Season 4 premiere and rather more like a conclusion to some of Season 3’s hanging threads.

          We’ve returned to Mandolore as Sabine, Ezra, Kanan and a team of Mandos attempt to rescue Sabine’s father from the clutches of the Empire. Along the way the Empire unveils a new, anti-Mandolorian weapon that fries anything wearing Mandolorian armor. Even worse? Sabine designed this weapon back when she worked for the Empire.

          It’s a good premise for an episode, and Part 1 is very entertaining. Seeing Mandos and Jedi vs. Stormtroopers is fun, although I would’ve liked a little less of both sides missing while shooting at near point-blank range. Ezra also has a fun comic relief role, cracking jokes and getting into crazy situations the whole time.

          I also love the implications of Sabine creating a weapon that could potentially destroy her entire society. It’s a great surprise that ends the first part on a perfect note.

          But in Part 2, things start to get messy. Part 1 ends with the Empire firing off the Anti-Mando weapon, and it looks like Sabine’s mother and brother have both been killed in the blast. Cut to Part 2 and it turns out that nah, they’re fine. They say they survived because they were outside the blast range, but after seeing the weapon used at full power against Stormtroopers later on in the episode I find that really hard to believe.

          So they storm the Empire’s ship, find the weapon, and Sabine is able to turn it against the stormtroopers and blow them all up. Why they didn’t take a weapon that had the potential to remove the Empire’s presence from entire planets at a time is beyond me, but I guess that’d be too easy.

          The episode ends with Sabine giving the Darksaber away to some random Mando lady who I guess is from The Clone Wars (I really should watch that all the way through at some point), essentially throwing away all her character development from Season 3. Why!? Her getting the Darksaber and using it to reunite Mandolore was a great plot thread, and now it’s just done, I guess. It made Sabine one of the most interesting characters on the show, so it’s a weird choice to see her just give it away to a person she just met a few hours ago.

          This premiere is…okay. I’ve seen far worse episodes from Rebels, and the action in Part 1 coupled with Ezra’s antics were entertaining. But as a season premiere, this episode leaves a lot to be desired. If this episode had been a part of Season 3 instead of the opener to Season 4, I probably would’ve enjoyed it more as a cap off to Sabine’s arc.

FINAL SCORE
6/10

Okay

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