Rebels: 3x11-13
Dec. 13th, 2021 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsRebels 3x11/12 – Ghosts of Geonosis
Hey, it’s a two-parter that I knew going in would be a two-parter and I’m going to review as such. Unfortunately, I have very little to say about this story even though it was two episodes. Over all, I was mostly just bored by it.
The first part was better than the second half, as the tension in the first part did a pretty good job as sucking me in. For that episode I was thinking along the lines of, this episode is a little slow but that feeds my half-baked idea that most of these episodes are stories that need about one and a half episodes, and this is the same amount of story they for once gave it two eps. And going by that episode, I would have said I prefer how it works with a little more time because the moments could breathe; maybe more than they needed to, but better than we usually get.
Then the second episode happened. The pace in the second part is just awful. It’s all action and things happening on top of each other with no time to breathe…except they have too much time to work with to make that feeling happen with any urgency.
It’s also preachy and sexist, though that kind of runs through both parts and is just more open about it in part two. Or more evident to me because of how unengaged I am with the episode.
The sexism thing is another thing that’s kind of simmered in the back of my mind for a while. And maybe it’s just watching two episodes in a row that makes it stand out more, but this episode bugged me in that regard. But I was already aware of it in part 1, when for some reason they don’t take Sabine on the field part of the op, just send the guys. I think sometimes the fact that Zeb is so underdeveloped partially masks the sexism component in how Hera and Sabine are underdeveloped, but it stood out to me this time. I also think having Rex around to be one of the guys makes it even worse that Sabine doesn’t get to be on the same character level as them. They don’t need a reason to keep Sabine back from the assumed action part of the story, of course she’s just staying behind, but we have to lay out that Zeb would be okay with it. And this brings out the fact that Hera never gets to go on the action part of the mission even if it’s because her skill set is based on the ship.
But part 2 was something else. Yeah, let’s take all the action characters and have them fight on the outside of the ship; except the character who should logically be the best suited for combat in that environment. And yes they did eventually bring her out, and have her kick ass, but there’s no reason given for why the boys were out there first (it’s not as if she didn’t have her armor handy).
Okay, back to preachy. I actually noted early in the first episode when Rex said that the Geonosians looked a bit like battle droids and I thought…maybe a little, but it’s not really how I remember them looking. But it was clearly there to set up our lone survivor, and the PTB wanted a sympathetic looking little alien guy instead of a flying cockroach that the audience might have a harder time sympathizing with. I on the other hand remember being fairly sympathetic to Poggle the Lesser when Anakin Force-choak-tortured him for information, even at the time when he was a direct enemy to the leads.
I also hate…Ezra, or the writing of Ezra in this one (I do consider them to be different things sometimes). I hate the writing of Ezra making him preachy and the bestest most noble hero around when he is really just a dumbass who has no internal motivation for why he believes these good things, except that the writers decided that they were good things and so the hero does them. But I hate Ezra because he’s also a condescending ass to the Geonosian. He’s setting a bad example for kids watching this program in how to interact with non-English speakers as if being an English speaker makes you better and more qualified to be in charge.
And sure, genocide is wrong, that’s a pretty basic tenant to believe in. But the show is so shallow with its exploration of ethics in warfare that I end up constructing arguments I wish Sah would give so that the heroes had to defend their position more strongly than ‘nuh-uh.’ Especially when their ‘nuh-uh’-ing is largely done by Ezra in full white savior mode.
Also, once again, why is the blind guy looking at holo-transmissions as if he can see them? I can get him faking it a little, so that others aren’t put off by him not conforming to social cues, but I find it distracting that the animators downplay his blindness so much. Hell, Sah tells Kanan to watch his step at one point, and I really expected there to be some comment on that.
So…the Geonosians died because of Death Star construction, right? That seems to be what they’re saying here, but they don’t actually have the characters get anywhere near the truth. And that could be an interesting way to work this story/show, keeping the characters in the dark about something the viewers can easily put together, but I find myself not liking it very much. It’s a prequel problem since we know this team isn’t going to have anything to do with stopping the Death Star, so hinting around it but not able to do anything about it isn’t working for me. I do at least understand the impulse, but…
Well, when the episode is this bad anyway, then I can’t exactly give them any slack on this plot point.
Rebels 3x13 – Warhead
Well…that one was okay. It’s one of those episodes that I think is pretty good considering what show this actually is; it’s just that the average quality level of what the show is has been pretty low for me.
It’s kind of a toss-up; on one hand, the lack of Ezra removes one of my main objections to the show (although he does still manage to annoy me a bit in his minute of screen time); on the other hand, it’s a droid episode, and I don’t like those much better. It is a pretty good Zeb episode, and I approve of that, if only they didn’t have to have him play off the droids to get some actual time and development.
It's actually kind of weird how little I think there is to say about this episode now that I sit down to it. It was the boring sort of fine, not underwhelming or with anything substantial that I’m reserving judgement on, it was just kind of there. Which is why I say it’s good for what the show has been, because it is the kind of smaller, character episode I so often think the show needs. (Really it even kind of needs something like this for Ezra, but it definitely needs it for people who aren’t Ezra.)
That said, it’s kind of weird that Zeb spends so much time complaining about being left alone where there clearly are plenty of other people at the base. I might even allow some comment on how the team is all leaving him behind, but I think that’s different from alone. In another way, it just makes me feel bad, because the show has a hard enough time seeing the main characters as full people, of course they consider the presence of background NPCs to mean Zeb is being left alone.
The universe of this show just doesn’t feel very real, which is why it hasn’t gotten to a point I consider it fully canon yet. Maybe not even as close to canon and TCW was, although that’s kind of different angles on the same thing.
Hey, it’s a two-parter that I knew going in would be a two-parter and I’m going to review as such. Unfortunately, I have very little to say about this story even though it was two episodes. Over all, I was mostly just bored by it.
The first part was better than the second half, as the tension in the first part did a pretty good job as sucking me in. For that episode I was thinking along the lines of, this episode is a little slow but that feeds my half-baked idea that most of these episodes are stories that need about one and a half episodes, and this is the same amount of story they for once gave it two eps. And going by that episode, I would have said I prefer how it works with a little more time because the moments could breathe; maybe more than they needed to, but better than we usually get.
Then the second episode happened. The pace in the second part is just awful. It’s all action and things happening on top of each other with no time to breathe…except they have too much time to work with to make that feeling happen with any urgency.
It’s also preachy and sexist, though that kind of runs through both parts and is just more open about it in part two. Or more evident to me because of how unengaged I am with the episode.
The sexism thing is another thing that’s kind of simmered in the back of my mind for a while. And maybe it’s just watching two episodes in a row that makes it stand out more, but this episode bugged me in that regard. But I was already aware of it in part 1, when for some reason they don’t take Sabine on the field part of the op, just send the guys. I think sometimes the fact that Zeb is so underdeveloped partially masks the sexism component in how Hera and Sabine are underdeveloped, but it stood out to me this time. I also think having Rex around to be one of the guys makes it even worse that Sabine doesn’t get to be on the same character level as them. They don’t need a reason to keep Sabine back from the assumed action part of the story, of course she’s just staying behind, but we have to lay out that Zeb would be okay with it. And this brings out the fact that Hera never gets to go on the action part of the mission even if it’s because her skill set is based on the ship.
But part 2 was something else. Yeah, let’s take all the action characters and have them fight on the outside of the ship; except the character who should logically be the best suited for combat in that environment. And yes they did eventually bring her out, and have her kick ass, but there’s no reason given for why the boys were out there first (it’s not as if she didn’t have her armor handy).
Okay, back to preachy. I actually noted early in the first episode when Rex said that the Geonosians looked a bit like battle droids and I thought…maybe a little, but it’s not really how I remember them looking. But it was clearly there to set up our lone survivor, and the PTB wanted a sympathetic looking little alien guy instead of a flying cockroach that the audience might have a harder time sympathizing with. I on the other hand remember being fairly sympathetic to Poggle the Lesser when Anakin Force-choak-tortured him for information, even at the time when he was a direct enemy to the leads.
I also hate…Ezra, or the writing of Ezra in this one (I do consider them to be different things sometimes). I hate the writing of Ezra making him preachy and the bestest most noble hero around when he is really just a dumbass who has no internal motivation for why he believes these good things, except that the writers decided that they were good things and so the hero does them. But I hate Ezra because he’s also a condescending ass to the Geonosian. He’s setting a bad example for kids watching this program in how to interact with non-English speakers as if being an English speaker makes you better and more qualified to be in charge.
And sure, genocide is wrong, that’s a pretty basic tenant to believe in. But the show is so shallow with its exploration of ethics in warfare that I end up constructing arguments I wish Sah would give so that the heroes had to defend their position more strongly than ‘nuh-uh.’ Especially when their ‘nuh-uh’-ing is largely done by Ezra in full white savior mode.
Also, once again, why is the blind guy looking at holo-transmissions as if he can see them? I can get him faking it a little, so that others aren’t put off by him not conforming to social cues, but I find it distracting that the animators downplay his blindness so much. Hell, Sah tells Kanan to watch his step at one point, and I really expected there to be some comment on that.
So…the Geonosians died because of Death Star construction, right? That seems to be what they’re saying here, but they don’t actually have the characters get anywhere near the truth. And that could be an interesting way to work this story/show, keeping the characters in the dark about something the viewers can easily put together, but I find myself not liking it very much. It’s a prequel problem since we know this team isn’t going to have anything to do with stopping the Death Star, so hinting around it but not able to do anything about it isn’t working for me. I do at least understand the impulse, but…
Well, when the episode is this bad anyway, then I can’t exactly give them any slack on this plot point.
Rebels 3x13 – Warhead
Well…that one was okay. It’s one of those episodes that I think is pretty good considering what show this actually is; it’s just that the average quality level of what the show is has been pretty low for me.
It’s kind of a toss-up; on one hand, the lack of Ezra removes one of my main objections to the show (although he does still manage to annoy me a bit in his minute of screen time); on the other hand, it’s a droid episode, and I don’t like those much better. It is a pretty good Zeb episode, and I approve of that, if only they didn’t have to have him play off the droids to get some actual time and development.
It's actually kind of weird how little I think there is to say about this episode now that I sit down to it. It was the boring sort of fine, not underwhelming or with anything substantial that I’m reserving judgement on, it was just kind of there. Which is why I say it’s good for what the show has been, because it is the kind of smaller, character episode I so often think the show needs. (Really it even kind of needs something like this for Ezra, but it definitely needs it for people who aren’t Ezra.)
That said, it’s kind of weird that Zeb spends so much time complaining about being left alone where there clearly are plenty of other people at the base. I might even allow some comment on how the team is all leaving him behind, but I think that’s different from alone. In another way, it just makes me feel bad, because the show has a hard enough time seeing the main characters as full people, of course they consider the presence of background NPCs to mean Zeb is being left alone.
The universe of this show just doesn’t feel very real, which is why it hasn’t gotten to a point I consider it fully canon yet. Maybe not even as close to canon and TCW was, although that’s kind of different angles on the same thing.
