Tuesday, 24 October 2017

Star Wars Rebels Review: “In the Name of the Rebellion”

One rogue
(This review contains spoilers!)

          After a frustrating and underwhelming premiere, Star Wars Rebels managed to spin itself back in the right direction this week with lots of action, fun, and a very smart story that ties directly into Rogue One.

          Honestly, they should’ve used this episode as the season premiere and saved Mandalore for next week. Everything you want out of a good Rebels episode is present in this two-parter. The Rebels have arrived on Yavin IV to join up with the Rebellion once again, this time alongside Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and that one bearded guy who’s name nobody knows. The Rebels are sent on a mission to mess with a deflector dish Star Trek 2009 style, but things go quickly awry when Saw Gerrera shows up and recruits Ezra and Sabine to help him uncover a dark secret of the Empire’s.

          Saw Gerrera is always a welcome presence, especially when he’s voiced by Forest Whitaker. It was really cool how they moved him closer to how he looks in Rogue One than how he appeared in Season 3, but still missing a few of the robotic parts he has in the movie. He also was the source of a great moral question: how far is the Rebellion willing to go to take down the Empire?

          Being a two part episode, the episode is split into two separate stories, both of them good ones. The first half is dedicated to the crew arriving on Yavin IV and trying to disable the Empire’s deflector dish, and the second half sees Ezra and Sabine teaming up with Saw to infiltrate a cargo ship to see what the Empire’s working on. Unlike the ploddingly paced Mandalore episode, both storylines are supremely enjoyable and kept me glued to my screen the whole time.

          This episode tied in to Rogue One quite a bit not just with the inclusion of Saw and Yavin IV, but also the presence of Deathtroopers as well as the kyber crystals we know the Empire is using to charge the Death Star laser. Granted that you can see both Chopper and the Ghost briefly in Rogue One I wouldn’t be surprised if we got more ties to it throughout the season as we get closer and closer to the time it takes place.

          Please give us a Cassian and K-2SO episode, guys.

          Overall, I enjoyed this episode leagues more than the premiere. It really felt like a true animated Star Wars adventure with the action, comedy, quiet moments with Kanan and the kyber crystal stuff, and ties to the movies with the Rogue One stuff. While I still think the show isn’t quite as good as it was at the end of Season 3, I’m more than happy to give it the time it needs to get its space legs back.

FINAL SCORE
8/10

Great

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