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tori_reviews2021-09-17 10:40 pm
jedi_of_urth) wrote in tori_reviews2021-09-17 10:40 pm
Rebels: 1x09-11
Star Wars Rebels: 1x09 – Path of the Jedi
Okay, so this is episode nine, that is often a point when shows shift gears; either a mid-season finale kind, or maybe that was the initial episode order and stuff after that came in once the show was more proven (although in animation it’s a little different than live action shows). But this episode really feels like the end of an arc, and that’s fine with me.
I’m not sure I have anything to add to what I’ve been saying about the show so far. I’m really hoping that we expand focus beyond Ezra now, because this feels like a fine place to move his arc to a back burner and let someone else take the spotlight for a bit. I don’t know that it will happen, but I really hope it does.
Like I keep saying, I don’t dislike what we’re getting of Ezra’s arc (although I agree with this episode that it’s moving very quickly), but I don’t want it to be the only arc the show has. The show hasn’t even done much of a job showing Kanan’s journey in parallel is Ezra’s, because they could definitely have explored his character while keeping the plot the same.
We’re getting up there in terms of Disney-Star Wars, the Force just does whatever we say it does and is largely a plot device to make whatever we want happen. I can stretch a reasonable view of the Force around this, but it’s close to my breaking point.
It didn’t take long for me to realize Ezra was having a hallucination; it was questionable when Kanan first showed up (I mean, how did he get in?), but as soon as he went past I figured we were already in Force-sight territory. So the rest of it didn’t have that much value to me, until we got to the Yoda part, at which point I have questions.
I think they could either have the temple that -just does stuff-, or they could have Yoda randomly influencing things here. Having both in the same episode is just about too much for me. I would prefer to say that Yoda wasn’t involved. That somehow the temple just is that powerful and it gets in your head, although I also hate the idea that buildings can do that. It makes sense (near enough that I would allow it) that to Kanan the Force would speak in Yoda’s voice, but that line of thought doesn’t quite work on Ezra. Especially since the floaty lights like in Yoda’s quest adventure would seem to imply that the intent was that Yoda was involved.
Above I said that the use of the Force in this one almost goes past my breaking point. You can kind of tell with the fact that I would give this story a minor tweak way to work that I’m still on the side of going with it. If I had gone over the breaking point I would only rant about whether the Doyalist reasons why they use Yoda here are anything beyond purely for reasons of franchise. It is still very much that, but I’m still willing to cut it enough slack to kinda sorta pretend it’s not.
Star Wars Rebels: 1x10 – Idiot's Array
I don’t know that I actually like this show any more than TCW or if I’m just numb to the disappointment I had with the other show. I don’t really like this one, but the ways it doesn’t work for me are somehow less annoying than the problems were on the technically better show.
Look, I really don’t have much to say about this episode. It was kind of nothing, kind of forced, kind of wrong; but I’m less bothered by it. I think it’s a bit because what this show is, is easier for me to take it being meh. TCW shouldn’t have been meh, it had all the opportunities to be so much more than meh, and on occasion it was, but most of the time it wasn’t. This is a much more cartoony show, and so when it has the flaws inherent in being a cartoon, well, why would I expect any different?
That said, this episode did what I was hoping these last few episodes of this season might do, it wasn’t about Ezra. He was there, he was still developing, he had moments of character focus, but he wasn’t such a forced lead. Admittedly, that could be because Lando was hogging the spotlight, and that’s not great, but I’d say that what time the regular crew got was more evenly divided between them.
I’m not quite sure I believe the impression I’ve gotten that this show improves after the first season; people said that about TCW too and…well it was kind of true and kind of not. It became more sure of itself at being what it was; but I still took issue with so much of what TCW was, and what this presently is isn’t exactly what I want it to settle into the groove of.
I really do wish I had more to say about this one, I feel like I should. But it’s kind of not worth getting angry at, even though I don’t think it was very good. It didn’t have enough character work done for anyone for me to ruminate on it. It’s not an arc episode so there’s little room to think about how it affects plot. It’s a gimmick episode, which could make me angry if I was in a mood to be angry with it, but I’m not. Basically, it was meh, take that as you will.
Star Wars Rebels: 1x11 – Vision of Hope
So here’s the thing, I’ve been suspicious of Traevis since the Luminara hoax, so this episode wasn’t the least bit surprising to me. Everything in this episode seemed to prove me right, and then it actually revealed that I was. I actually kind of didn’t think I would be proven right; I don’t know if I thought it would take longer for the show to get to the point, or if I thought it would reveal him as like a triple agent, but being right actually kind of surprised me. Maybe I just have really low expectations of the writing of the show, that I see something obvious and expect they didn’t even intend it.
Connected but also kind of independent of it, all episode I was completely sure Ezra was being an idiot. While the show has set up Traevis’ presence, it hasn’t done so much to set up Ezra’s hero worship of him, so it kind of seems overplayed. And even if I thought they were going the friendly route with Traevis, I figured the comment on Ezra’s parents was something of a self-fulfilling prophesy; Ezra has a vision that makes him think Traevis knew his parents, he ends up talking about his parents, Traevus compliments their bravery but of course he didn’t know them.
Now, to be fair, would I have thought that at 15? Debatable. As a viewer yes, I was already a single loop time travel/vision fan by that point. But if I’m putting myself in Ezra’s place…he wants to believe it, but he’s also grown up under the Empire, so I sort of feel like he shouldn’t be quite so gullible.
Are there really no other interested Rebels on Lothal? Maybe there are plenty who couldn’t get there, who are more ground based without a ship on-hand to make a trip so quickly? Or maybe some of them are more savvy than this crew and had more suspicion of a trap. And sure, just regular sympathizers aren’t going to take the risk or be looking for extra codes in the broadcasts. This kind of thing can cuts both ways; you can either say that a planet is a big place so not everyone is going to show up on short notice; but if a planet is big and there are no other rebels, that’s a problem.
Also this is kind of what I wondered about early on; there are things this series can do by sticking to a consistent location, but then the writing should actually flesh that place out, and I don’t feel like Lothal is getting that much establishment.
This was…fine. Better than average I suppose I’d say. But it’s a pretty good episode of what the show is, rather than an episode that raises my opinion of what the show is. And I don’t want this show to take as long as TCW did to give me any thought that the show could be better than what it generally was; because if it takes too long, those good signs become exceptions rather than expectations.
Okay, so this is episode nine, that is often a point when shows shift gears; either a mid-season finale kind, or maybe that was the initial episode order and stuff after that came in once the show was more proven (although in animation it’s a little different than live action shows). But this episode really feels like the end of an arc, and that’s fine with me.
I’m not sure I have anything to add to what I’ve been saying about the show so far. I’m really hoping that we expand focus beyond Ezra now, because this feels like a fine place to move his arc to a back burner and let someone else take the spotlight for a bit. I don’t know that it will happen, but I really hope it does.
Like I keep saying, I don’t dislike what we’re getting of Ezra’s arc (although I agree with this episode that it’s moving very quickly), but I don’t want it to be the only arc the show has. The show hasn’t even done much of a job showing Kanan’s journey in parallel is Ezra’s, because they could definitely have explored his character while keeping the plot the same.
We’re getting up there in terms of Disney-Star Wars, the Force just does whatever we say it does and is largely a plot device to make whatever we want happen. I can stretch a reasonable view of the Force around this, but it’s close to my breaking point.
It didn’t take long for me to realize Ezra was having a hallucination; it was questionable when Kanan first showed up (I mean, how did he get in?), but as soon as he went past I figured we were already in Force-sight territory. So the rest of it didn’t have that much value to me, until we got to the Yoda part, at which point I have questions.
I think they could either have the temple that -just does stuff-, or they could have Yoda randomly influencing things here. Having both in the same episode is just about too much for me. I would prefer to say that Yoda wasn’t involved. That somehow the temple just is that powerful and it gets in your head, although I also hate the idea that buildings can do that. It makes sense (near enough that I would allow it) that to Kanan the Force would speak in Yoda’s voice, but that line of thought doesn’t quite work on Ezra. Especially since the floaty lights like in Yoda’s quest adventure would seem to imply that the intent was that Yoda was involved.
Above I said that the use of the Force in this one almost goes past my breaking point. You can kind of tell with the fact that I would give this story a minor tweak way to work that I’m still on the side of going with it. If I had gone over the breaking point I would only rant about whether the Doyalist reasons why they use Yoda here are anything beyond purely for reasons of franchise. It is still very much that, but I’m still willing to cut it enough slack to kinda sorta pretend it’s not.
Star Wars Rebels: 1x10 – Idiot's Array
I don’t know that I actually like this show any more than TCW or if I’m just numb to the disappointment I had with the other show. I don’t really like this one, but the ways it doesn’t work for me are somehow less annoying than the problems were on the technically better show.
Look, I really don’t have much to say about this episode. It was kind of nothing, kind of forced, kind of wrong; but I’m less bothered by it. I think it’s a bit because what this show is, is easier for me to take it being meh. TCW shouldn’t have been meh, it had all the opportunities to be so much more than meh, and on occasion it was, but most of the time it wasn’t. This is a much more cartoony show, and so when it has the flaws inherent in being a cartoon, well, why would I expect any different?
That said, this episode did what I was hoping these last few episodes of this season might do, it wasn’t about Ezra. He was there, he was still developing, he had moments of character focus, but he wasn’t such a forced lead. Admittedly, that could be because Lando was hogging the spotlight, and that’s not great, but I’d say that what time the regular crew got was more evenly divided between them.
I’m not quite sure I believe the impression I’ve gotten that this show improves after the first season; people said that about TCW too and…well it was kind of true and kind of not. It became more sure of itself at being what it was; but I still took issue with so much of what TCW was, and what this presently is isn’t exactly what I want it to settle into the groove of.
I really do wish I had more to say about this one, I feel like I should. But it’s kind of not worth getting angry at, even though I don’t think it was very good. It didn’t have enough character work done for anyone for me to ruminate on it. It’s not an arc episode so there’s little room to think about how it affects plot. It’s a gimmick episode, which could make me angry if I was in a mood to be angry with it, but I’m not. Basically, it was meh, take that as you will.
Star Wars Rebels: 1x11 – Vision of Hope
So here’s the thing, I’ve been suspicious of Traevis since the Luminara hoax, so this episode wasn’t the least bit surprising to me. Everything in this episode seemed to prove me right, and then it actually revealed that I was. I actually kind of didn’t think I would be proven right; I don’t know if I thought it would take longer for the show to get to the point, or if I thought it would reveal him as like a triple agent, but being right actually kind of surprised me. Maybe I just have really low expectations of the writing of the show, that I see something obvious and expect they didn’t even intend it.
Connected but also kind of independent of it, all episode I was completely sure Ezra was being an idiot. While the show has set up Traevis’ presence, it hasn’t done so much to set up Ezra’s hero worship of him, so it kind of seems overplayed. And even if I thought they were going the friendly route with Traevis, I figured the comment on Ezra’s parents was something of a self-fulfilling prophesy; Ezra has a vision that makes him think Traevis knew his parents, he ends up talking about his parents, Traevus compliments their bravery but of course he didn’t know them.
Now, to be fair, would I have thought that at 15? Debatable. As a viewer yes, I was already a single loop time travel/vision fan by that point. But if I’m putting myself in Ezra’s place…he wants to believe it, but he’s also grown up under the Empire, so I sort of feel like he shouldn’t be quite so gullible.
Are there really no other interested Rebels on Lothal? Maybe there are plenty who couldn’t get there, who are more ground based without a ship on-hand to make a trip so quickly? Or maybe some of them are more savvy than this crew and had more suspicion of a trap. And sure, just regular sympathizers aren’t going to take the risk or be looking for extra codes in the broadcasts. This kind of thing can cuts both ways; you can either say that a planet is a big place so not everyone is going to show up on short notice; but if a planet is big and there are no other rebels, that’s a problem.
Also this is kind of what I wondered about early on; there are things this series can do by sticking to a consistent location, but then the writing should actually flesh that place out, and I don’t feel like Lothal is getting that much establishment.
This was…fine. Better than average I suppose I’d say. But it’s a pretty good episode of what the show is, rather than an episode that raises my opinion of what the show is. And I don’t want this show to take as long as TCW did to give me any thought that the show could be better than what it generally was; because if it takes too long, those good signs become exceptions rather than expectations.