REVIEW: Star Wars Rebels "Steps Into Shadow"
At long last, Star Wars Rebels Season 3 is here. This season looks to be the biggest in scale with the threat of Maul, a growing rebellion, temptations of the dark side, and of course, the canonizing of Grand Admiral Thrawn. This episode tackled in a way all of those mentioned minus Maul and set the stage for what the overall themes of this season will be.
So the episode takes place an undisclosed amount of time after Twilight of the Apprentice as we see Ezra has grown much in his abilities, but has also changed drastically in attitude. He has been using the Sith Holocron that was recovered and it changes him into kind of an egotistical ass. I get it, the dark side corrupts you and feeds on your inner most desires. In that regard, I sort of like what they're doing with that and I also get that a theme of this season will be Ezra trying to control the darkness in him. At the same time, he still acts cocky and threatens the life of the Ghost crew multiple times throughout the episode, so that got kind of annoying.
The first part of the episode shows Ezra, Zeb, and Sabine rescuing Hondo from prison for his intel. He has a cellmate named Tarba that dies during the escape and Ezra is blamed for it. Despite that, after a cool series of events, Hondo is rescued and Ezra is appointed Lt. Commander. Yeah, that won't get to his head at all, won't it. He is then assigned to lead a stealth team of himself, Zeb, Sabine, Chopper, Hondo, and Rex to try and see if they can steal a group of old Republic Y-WINGS.
During this time, we get to see Kanan. He blames himself for what happened on Malachor and separates himself from the group. He tries to talk to Ezra but after finding out he is using the holocron, he rightfully yells at him about it. Ezra then proceeds to say he doesn't need him...ASSHOLE! Anyway, Kanan receives a call through the force where we meet a force creature called the Bendu, voiced by the fourth doctor Tom Baker! He is a balance of the light and the dark and teaches Kanan on how to see others through the force without his sight and that simple objects like the holocron can't make someone bad, only one's desire too.
The whole sequence of events between Kanan and the Bendu were some of my favorite moments during the premiere. The character of the Bendu itself represents an aspect of the force that we really haven't seen, someone of true balance in the force. His words to Kanan do carry a lot of weight, and the idea of Kanan working through his disability to further his connection in the force and will be a theme throughout the season as well. Kanan decides to go and help Ezra in his mission and leaves the holocron with the Bendu.
Ok, the big question that you are all wondering, how was Thrawn? Well, in all honesty, it's hard to tell at this point because he was only in the episode for a few scenes. In fact, another new character that is introduced, the Imperial Governor of Lothal, Governor Price has more screen time than him. Despite that, it was still intriguing to see him appear. This is embarrassing for me to say, but I never actually read the old Thrawn trilogy of books so my knowledge of the character is rather skewed. However, I can tell that he is a different kind of Star Wars villain. He is calculating, calm, not prone to outbursts and likes to look at the bigger picture of things when planning strategy. He also is keen on learning all their is to know about an enemy before defeating them. His brief appearances in the episode do set the stage for his threat throughout the season, though I would have liked to see him more.
So, the stealth group reaches the facility to discover that the Empire is destroying the fighters. Ezra then decides that there is no time to wait for backup and decides to steal the fighters now. In all honesty, it's a decision that I am divided on. Yes, they would have never gotten a second chance to take them and he was right about that. However, as Sabine says, their mission wasn't a recovery and their lives will be in danger. However, Ezra, the hothead that he is, decides against their best wishes and goes anyway. Yeah, like I mention before, good idea for a character story arc, but still annoying to actually see in person.
Through a lot of cool action moments, the crew makes it to the station and recover the fighters. However, the Empire places the ships on lockdown and attacks the rebels with a group of disrupter droids. They were the big orange droids from the trailer. Ezra goes to the command center and destroys the core, even though the commanding officer warns it will kill everyone. Yeah, Ezra, WHAT THE HELL?! There is being reckless, and than there's being completely stupid. What makes matters worse is that even though the bombers do get off the ground, Ezra remains trapped on the station and the Phantom is destroyed. Yeah, it's gone now, for good.
In the end, the Rebel fleet led by Kanan and Hera come and rescue Ezra and the crew and Hondo, being Hondo, abandoned the crew earlier in an Imperial shuttle. Thrawn decides to let the fleet go, revealing that he has a bigger picture in mind. Kanan and Ezra reconcile, Ezra is rightfully suspended from command, and the bombers are sent to a new rebel cell that we haven't met before.
Overall, the premiere was still really good with great action and great setup for the characters and themes for the season. My only real problem was again Ezra. I get what they are trying to do with the character, but it was still annoying to see him act that way.
