I enjoy the mystical part of the story right now much more than another space battle. Not that I don't like space battles but they more or less look all the same. Going into hypdrive through the hangar of another ship - now that's inventive.
Usually I'm not that big into all the romance stuff in Star Wars. But this thing between Hera and Kanan works well. I wasn't thinking of them as a pair from the start but it became apperent throughout the show there is something more than a deep friendship between them. A bit like the Anakin/Ahsoka relationship. But when Thrawn attacked Chopper Base she adressed Kanan as "Love" on the com which I at first thought to be a slip of tongue. But now in hindsight I guess you could say they were a pair before and if that's the case I applaud the writers for not rubbing it in our face all the time.
How great is it to see Rukh, Noghri assassin and Thrawn's right hand, finally made a part of Star Wars canon? And voiced by Warwick Davis, no less. They seem to have made him more or less true to Timothy Zahn's original character, if maybe a bit less subtle.
I enjoy the mystical elements of this show far more than the action beats, so there was a lot to like here.
Let's Turn Those Mountains Into Dust
Looks like they're indeed drawn to Lothal.
"How have you people stayed alive so long?" :D
Hera's hump through the construction sphere was nice. (But also unnecessary as there would theoretically be so many free spots to escape/jump...)
The wolfes are still cool, especially that travelling ability (shortcut from the northern to the southern hemisphere).
I wonder what Kanan/Doom has to do with all of it and what that "something more sinister" on Lothal is.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-11-15T16:03:36Z
[7.5/10] A few things stand out to me in this mostly standard-issue, but intermittently intriguing episode of Rebels.
The first is that the show has started to get a little bit meta, or at least self-aware. Maybe it’s the knowledge that this is the final season of the series, but there’s a few knowing comments that stand out. For one thing, Kanan talks about how they always end up on Lothal, with the vague notion that The Force is pulling them there, which is a nice fig leaf for the narrative/technical convenience of setting a series in mostly the same locale. There’s also Zeb’s amusing comment to Ryder after they start following a magical wolf that when things get weird, it’s a good sign. It’s a funny bit of genre savviness from the Losat.
The second is that I’m tired of sub-bosses. In fairness to Rebels, a lot of this has to do with The Clone Wars, and how often it would introduce some low-level, snarling bad guy whose only purpose was to give our heroes a little bit of trouble before being inevitably defeated. But Rebels has done it too, with the various Inquisitors and other obstacle villains that don’t have the depth of a Kallus or the intrigue of a Thrawn.
Rukh seems like just that sort of disposable bad guy. Sure, he can sniff out a Losat and bound through the desert and fight with the same sort of fuzzy laser staffs the droid army used to use, but there’s not enough to him to make him interesting, and you just know he’s going to be a mere bump on the road.
There was also a good amount of creditable, but pretty standard action here. I enjoy a good speeder chase as much as the next guy, and Hera hyperdriving her way through a Star Destroyer is pretty damn cool, but I have to admit that I’ve started to mentally tune out for much of these sequences. This show’s been offering that sort of thing pretty regularly, and it takes something genuinely creative to gin up any excitement for the latest skirmish.
There’s also the Kanan/Hera romantic business, which is sort of weird. It’s odd, because from the beginning of the series I had assumed they were together, and just didn’t PDA in front of the troops. I actually liked that about the show, the idea that you had Kanan and Hera and the mom and dad of the Ghost crew, without needing to belabor it, with details like Kanan being a little nervous about meeting Hera’s dad putting that into relief.
In fairness, the show makes room for that sort of thing, hinting at the idea that the pair care for one another but put their feelings on hold for the war. And I like the two of them together. The show’s handling of those romantic scenes has just felt a little too clumsy and cliché for my tastes.
Then there’s the loth-wolf, and the crew being mystically teleported to the other side of the planet, and I’m of two minds about it. On the one hand, I do love when Star Wars indulges in its mystical side, and the notions of destiny and spirituality and history coming together in that cave with this creature is a compelling one. The other side of the coin is that there’s so much doublespeak, and so many teases, that it’s hard not to see the seams of the folks behind the show saying “Hey, there’s crazy stuff coming down the pyke! Stay tuned!” I’m generally on board, but all of this “paths converging” talk comes off a little too heavy-handed for my tastes.
That’s a lot of words on a good, but not particularly remarkable episode, but the bottom line is that this is a solid ep with more things that pique my interest for where the show is going to go than things that thrill me right now.