REVIEW: Star Wars Rebels: "In the Name of the Rebellion"
Rebels is back this week with another two-part episode. Right off the back, I can safely say that these two episodes were much better than last week's episodes, the Heroes of Mandalore. That being said, are the episodes perfect?
Well, in my opinion, the first part nearly is. I loved this episode. It had creative action, the humor worked a lot better than last week, and more importantly, I made compelling arguments from multiple points of view regarding different ideas of what the Rebellion should be. Right off the back, we get introduced the Alliance base on Yavin 4, and, even though we've seen it a thousand times before in various media, it still is nice to see it in full animated form. Plus, it's also nice to see all the main characters and many supporting characters, such as Kallus and Rex interact and be a part of such an iconic location.
Hera and Wedge return from a botched mission nearly killed. The Empire has a new relay station used to spy on Rebel movements.
This honestly leads to the first half of the episode all dealing with different ideals on not only what to do with the relay, but also with the Rebellion as a whole. There is Saw Gerrera who returns this week who is the extreme. He is willing to do whatever it takes to win the war against the Empire, including attacking civilians and using torture. He calls out Mon Mothma on how cowardice and not taking enough action. This seeps through to the rest of the Ghost crew as each have their own viewpoint on what to do, even if they have to follow orders.
Granted, the episode also makes you understand Mothma's side as well. Ezra states why the Rebellion isn't sending help to Lothal. She said after Thrawn's victory last season, she said the Rebellion isn't ready for open warfare and that if the Alliance helps Lothal, where does it draw the line to help all the thousands of other planets suffering under the Empire?
Mothma believes it is best to spike the relay to monitor Imperials, while Ezra and Saw want to destroy it. Again, this first part makes you see both sides of all these arguments on what is best for the war. No side is 100 percent right or wrong. You can see where both viewpoints come from while also realizing the flaws in each side as well. Again, this first part was great at balancing these viewpoints and I think the tone should be carried through to the rest of the season.
Of course, the second half of the first part is one giant action set piece and to me, it works flawlessly. I won't spoil everything from the sequence but the humor works a lot better than before, and the action is really creative revolving the relay. The thing is able to tilt and turn so you can imagine what Ezra, Sabine, and Chopper use the relay for. There is also a great sequence where Kanan leads Hera, piloting the Ghost, through an area of fog to help destroy two Tie Defenders. Eventually, Saw comes and helps destroy the relay and basically kidnaps young trio on a personal mission...which leads into part 2.
It's weird, last week I thought part one of Heroes of Mandalore was better than part two, and I think the exact same thing this week. Part two isn't bad, but is way more black and white with its morals and has a lot of things that I have to question. The episode does make you see how far to the extreme Saw is going, but I also felt the episode went out of its way to make Saw as much of a prick as possible, more than what I think he would be.
Granted, I know in other media he does a lot of worse stuff, but because Rebels is on Disney XD, we're never really able to truly see his brutality in action. Instead, he doesn't want to rescue prisoners on a cargo ship and stuns the two rebels to get his way later on. To me, it's a combination of telling not showing, as well as the limitation of the platform the show is on.
The main plot of this episode is that the four rebels sneak aboard a civilian transport, which is guarded by the Empire, as Saw wants to figure out what the Empire was building on Geonosis from last season. Of course, we, as fans, know what it is, but it is still nice to see the characters try to piece things together before Rogue One. Director Krennic is also name-dropped in the episode. Eventually, the group finds both a group of prisoners that are reactor technicians (Death Star, hint, hint) as well as the main thing the Empire is trying to protect, a giant kyber crystal.
From there, the theme of what to do plays in with Ezra and Sabine wanting to escape with the prisoners with Saw subduing them to see where the Empire is taking the crystal. It's revealed to be nowhere, so Saw destroys the crystal and the Ghost crew escapes with the prisoners who join the Alliance.
One thing, as a fan, that really bothered me about this episode is that there are Death Troopers in this episode. However, instead of being the badass elite soldiers that they were in Rogue One, they're just as stupid as the regular stormtroopers. They don't even use their unique voice "garble" program they use in Rogue One. That, to me, was a major break in character and lore for the episode.
So overall, I liked these two episodes more than last week, though last week wasn't bad. I thought, for this week, part one was nearly perfect, with part two, though good, nowhere near as good and complex than part one with it taking a major step back in terms of ideals. Still, it was entertaining and so far, no episode has felt like a throwaway episode. Every episode so far, despite any flaws, has connected to the story in some way.
