Rebels: 3x14-16
Dec. 15th, 2021 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsRebels 3x14 – Trials of the Darksaber
I can tell this is the first part of at least a two-parter, but I do have some thoughts I ought to get down about just this episode. I liked this episode, I want to love it, and maybe if it can stick the landing I will. But there is a lot of stuff here that should have happened a long time ago.
We should have known Sabine had a backstory before it became relevant. I’m not even saying we should have had it laid out for us from the beginning or even in s1, and certainly the plot of her taking up the Dark Saber should have been left until later in the run about now; I do like that there was some small foreshadowing that there would be something to do with her past/family, but this was too long to wait before letting her be an actual character.
All of the main characters should have arcs, and they don’t. And when they sometimes get them, they tend to be very truncated and underdeveloped. They’re not set up until they happen, and we’ll see if there’s any payoff to this one when it’s done.
I will also say that part of what makes this episode work is that *does* bring in Hera’s family backstory. This feels like a significant episode, not only because it’s progressing Sabine’s character (as in finally giving her much of one), but because it connects with other characters’ issues as well. As much as I may roll my eyes at Ezra bringing up his dead parents (total Barry Allen move there), the writing here still has his opinions on this be influenced by his past experiences, and because this show is bad at doing that sort of thing, it’s noteworthy here.
And because for once the characters have a past that influences their existence beyond the needs of the plot of the moment, I end up buying the relationships between them a lot more. This is the Kanan and Hera that I kind of do ship. I buy that Kanan and Ezra have a long standing mentor-student bond. I may not ship Ezra/Sabine and doubt I ever will, but I at least believe they see each other as people instead of her being a background cardboard cutout in Ezra’s fantasies.
I really hope the next ep doesn’t let me down.
Rebels 3x15 – Legacy of Mandalore
I think on balance I like this episode, but I have a lot of conflicted feelings about what’s in it. It’s mostly good…kind of. There’s a lot to like…but it’s also not great when it kind of could have been, and probably should have been.
Taking into account the things I have liked on the animated shows, I have some confidence about how I’ll like The Mandalorian, as I’ve liked a lot of the stuff to do with the Mandalorians so far. Admittedly, there won’t be any Satine and Obi-wan mutual long-term pining but I guess we can’t have everything.
And part of why I’m not fully committing to a feeling about this episode is how unfinished it seems. I don’t know when we’ll come back to it, this might lead right into the next arc or the writers may ignore it for another 20 episodes, but it’s clearly not done. And yet, in not knowing I can’t quite let them off the hook for letting this be so underdone. Maybe I will if it comes back around soon, but if it takes them a while then this is going to have to stand as an ending for that time.
And it is not a good ending. If I look at it as an ending (if it were a live-action show I’d wonder if Sabine’s actress wanted out or needed some time off) then it does the thing I really hate and only makes a character relevant and fleshed out before writing them off the show. And it’s worse in this case because there was no reason not to have Sabine as a well-established character all along. On a lot of shows it’s elevating a common background character who suddenly becomes relevant just before they die/are written out/have to take someone else’s place, but Sabine has been one of the supposed main characters all along, so why wasn’t she a character all along?
While I find Mandalorian episodes often work for me, I am never fully sold on the Mandalorians as a people. But I’m not sure if sure if that’s a feature or a bug… Well, I’m sure my reaction is a bug, but I’m not sure if the reason for my reaction is a feature or a bug. Because it usually feels like we’re just getting a very small window into the Mandalorians, and we’ll probably have to wait for that show for that to change. But the point of how they’ve been used in the shows might be that we’re only given a small view of them when there’s actually a lot more to the culture and society. And it does even sort of work on me to get me wanting to see more, which I am willing to say is at partially intentional. But…because it’s so shallow in presentation and I don’t see the show as having deeper aspirations, I also don’t know that it’s intentionally and knowingly so shallow.
I do like that the episode ends with Sabine (have I ever complained about having Sabine and Satine’s names so similar? It gets annoying to type and I’m sure I’m not the first to say so) deciding she’s not meant to be the leader of Mandalor, it’s her place to find the person who can fill that role. Because if Sabine herself was the King Arthur of Mandalor, then this absolutely should have been her story all along and not dumbass Ezra. I’m a little shaky on whether I buy her advanced skills we’ve seen in these last couple episodes, but not having it turn out that it is her destiny to lead softens it a little.
Of course, once again, if the arc is just continuing straight away, then some of this is kind of a moot point as it’s the middle (ish) part of an arc instead of being judged as a finished arc. I guess we’ll see.
Rebels 3x16 – Through Imperial Eyes
I’m prepared to say this one was actually good…with a couple asterisks on it. I would even say it’s almost able to escape the ‘good for what the show is’ bubble I’ve been setting up lately; not quite, hence the asterisks, but almost good as in good.
I guess that I would go so far as to say this is good for a kids show. It’s a better story that usual, the things that usually annoy me mostly didn’t, it did something different, it both paid off an arc and furthered it, all of these are good things that can almost push it towards just being good. It’s just still a bit too…dumbed down to get out of the kids show bubble, but at least that’s a bigger bubble than only judging the show against itself.
So let’s talk about the asterisks. For one, as predicted, there is no further development of Sabine’s story. This isn’t a negative exactly, it is allowed that they have multiple plots that they’re juggling; but, I also don’t believe the show will give Sabine’s story the kind of focus that Ezra’s would probably get, and I think we all know how I feel about Ezra being the only one to get the show’s full attention.
Related to that (though still not a negative about this episode), is that I think Callus has now far outpaced most of the Ghost crew in terms of character development and plot importance. I kind of want the show to be about him, because he has a much more interesting story than anything Ezra has ever done. That’s part of the show still being so much a kids show; we have an interesting adult character with a complicated plot going on; we can’t have that, dumb it down and make it so Ezra’s part of it.
The thing is, I don’t even think Ezra’s that bad in this episode. Hell, he’s probably even the right choice among our main characters to be able to not raise suspicions on sight. But I can’t help being a little…bothered on a Doyalist level since I will always want any other character than Ezra to be involved.
As much as I like a lot of the plot, and I’m glad they show that it wasn’t as well done as the heroes think it was, I’m also a little annoyed with Callus for thinking it did work and he would get off scot-free. I was preparing a rant in defense of Thrawn that he should be able to figure out the story he’s being fed doesn’t work, when lo and behold, the show knows that too. Because they were always going to question the patsy, who would reveal the yarn Callus was feeding him, which would be pretty suspicious. And yeah, that guy is clearly too much of a weeny to have been involved in this, and hold up under interrogation to the point where he’d be coming up with a story to make Callus look worse.
On the flip side, there’s a part of me that wishes we really were only seeing things from Callus’ POV, so we didn’t know if Thrawn had figured it out. There’s plenty of story to be told where the audience isn’t sure and Callus thinks he’s pulling it off, but sometimes you’re really not sure. But again, bothering to that would be more fitting in a show that was focused on Callus, and this show isn’t going to do that.
And a couple more small points on the scenes with Rex and Kanan. First, I wish they were better integrated, and while it’s not as bad as Ezra, I’m still not fond of how the show uses Chopper either or how everyone just knows what he’s saying. But that’s an unfocused point. In focus, part of me appreciated that for once the show remembers that Kanan is blind and can’t see the Star Destroyers around them through the vacuum of space. On the other hand, I’m annoyed at Kanan calling Rex an oldtimer when they’re more or less the same age; sure Rex looks much older, but he’s not; it’s entirely possible Kanan is actually older since the show/verse is very fuzzy on ages.
I can tell this is the first part of at least a two-parter, but I do have some thoughts I ought to get down about just this episode. I liked this episode, I want to love it, and maybe if it can stick the landing I will. But there is a lot of stuff here that should have happened a long time ago.
We should have known Sabine had a backstory before it became relevant. I’m not even saying we should have had it laid out for us from the beginning or even in s1, and certainly the plot of her taking up the Dark Saber should have been left until later in the run about now; I do like that there was some small foreshadowing that there would be something to do with her past/family, but this was too long to wait before letting her be an actual character.
All of the main characters should have arcs, and they don’t. And when they sometimes get them, they tend to be very truncated and underdeveloped. They’re not set up until they happen, and we’ll see if there’s any payoff to this one when it’s done.
I will also say that part of what makes this episode work is that *does* bring in Hera’s family backstory. This feels like a significant episode, not only because it’s progressing Sabine’s character (as in finally giving her much of one), but because it connects with other characters’ issues as well. As much as I may roll my eyes at Ezra bringing up his dead parents (total Barry Allen move there), the writing here still has his opinions on this be influenced by his past experiences, and because this show is bad at doing that sort of thing, it’s noteworthy here.
And because for once the characters have a past that influences their existence beyond the needs of the plot of the moment, I end up buying the relationships between them a lot more. This is the Kanan and Hera that I kind of do ship. I buy that Kanan and Ezra have a long standing mentor-student bond. I may not ship Ezra/Sabine and doubt I ever will, but I at least believe they see each other as people instead of her being a background cardboard cutout in Ezra’s fantasies.
I really hope the next ep doesn’t let me down.
Rebels 3x15 – Legacy of Mandalore
I think on balance I like this episode, but I have a lot of conflicted feelings about what’s in it. It’s mostly good…kind of. There’s a lot to like…but it’s also not great when it kind of could have been, and probably should have been.
Taking into account the things I have liked on the animated shows, I have some confidence about how I’ll like The Mandalorian, as I’ve liked a lot of the stuff to do with the Mandalorians so far. Admittedly, there won’t be any Satine and Obi-wan mutual long-term pining but I guess we can’t have everything.
And part of why I’m not fully committing to a feeling about this episode is how unfinished it seems. I don’t know when we’ll come back to it, this might lead right into the next arc or the writers may ignore it for another 20 episodes, but it’s clearly not done. And yet, in not knowing I can’t quite let them off the hook for letting this be so underdone. Maybe I will if it comes back around soon, but if it takes them a while then this is going to have to stand as an ending for that time.
And it is not a good ending. If I look at it as an ending (if it were a live-action show I’d wonder if Sabine’s actress wanted out or needed some time off) then it does the thing I really hate and only makes a character relevant and fleshed out before writing them off the show. And it’s worse in this case because there was no reason not to have Sabine as a well-established character all along. On a lot of shows it’s elevating a common background character who suddenly becomes relevant just before they die/are written out/have to take someone else’s place, but Sabine has been one of the supposed main characters all along, so why wasn’t she a character all along?
While I find Mandalorian episodes often work for me, I am never fully sold on the Mandalorians as a people. But I’m not sure if sure if that’s a feature or a bug… Well, I’m sure my reaction is a bug, but I’m not sure if the reason for my reaction is a feature or a bug. Because it usually feels like we’re just getting a very small window into the Mandalorians, and we’ll probably have to wait for that show for that to change. But the point of how they’ve been used in the shows might be that we’re only given a small view of them when there’s actually a lot more to the culture and society. And it does even sort of work on me to get me wanting to see more, which I am willing to say is at partially intentional. But…because it’s so shallow in presentation and I don’t see the show as having deeper aspirations, I also don’t know that it’s intentionally and knowingly so shallow.
I do like that the episode ends with Sabine (have I ever complained about having Sabine and Satine’s names so similar? It gets annoying to type and I’m sure I’m not the first to say so) deciding she’s not meant to be the leader of Mandalor, it’s her place to find the person who can fill that role. Because if Sabine herself was the King Arthur of Mandalor, then this absolutely should have been her story all along and not dumbass Ezra. I’m a little shaky on whether I buy her advanced skills we’ve seen in these last couple episodes, but not having it turn out that it is her destiny to lead softens it a little.
Of course, once again, if the arc is just continuing straight away, then some of this is kind of a moot point as it’s the middle (ish) part of an arc instead of being judged as a finished arc. I guess we’ll see.
Rebels 3x16 – Through Imperial Eyes
I’m prepared to say this one was actually good…with a couple asterisks on it. I would even say it’s almost able to escape the ‘good for what the show is’ bubble I’ve been setting up lately; not quite, hence the asterisks, but almost good as in good.
I guess that I would go so far as to say this is good for a kids show. It’s a better story that usual, the things that usually annoy me mostly didn’t, it did something different, it both paid off an arc and furthered it, all of these are good things that can almost push it towards just being good. It’s just still a bit too…dumbed down to get out of the kids show bubble, but at least that’s a bigger bubble than only judging the show against itself.
So let’s talk about the asterisks. For one, as predicted, there is no further development of Sabine’s story. This isn’t a negative exactly, it is allowed that they have multiple plots that they’re juggling; but, I also don’t believe the show will give Sabine’s story the kind of focus that Ezra’s would probably get, and I think we all know how I feel about Ezra being the only one to get the show’s full attention.
Related to that (though still not a negative about this episode), is that I think Callus has now far outpaced most of the Ghost crew in terms of character development and plot importance. I kind of want the show to be about him, because he has a much more interesting story than anything Ezra has ever done. That’s part of the show still being so much a kids show; we have an interesting adult character with a complicated plot going on; we can’t have that, dumb it down and make it so Ezra’s part of it.
The thing is, I don’t even think Ezra’s that bad in this episode. Hell, he’s probably even the right choice among our main characters to be able to not raise suspicions on sight. But I can’t help being a little…bothered on a Doyalist level since I will always want any other character than Ezra to be involved.
As much as I like a lot of the plot, and I’m glad they show that it wasn’t as well done as the heroes think it was, I’m also a little annoyed with Callus for thinking it did work and he would get off scot-free. I was preparing a rant in defense of Thrawn that he should be able to figure out the story he’s being fed doesn’t work, when lo and behold, the show knows that too. Because they were always going to question the patsy, who would reveal the yarn Callus was feeding him, which would be pretty suspicious. And yeah, that guy is clearly too much of a weeny to have been involved in this, and hold up under interrogation to the point where he’d be coming up with a story to make Callus look worse.
On the flip side, there’s a part of me that wishes we really were only seeing things from Callus’ POV, so we didn’t know if Thrawn had figured it out. There’s plenty of story to be told where the audience isn’t sure and Callus thinks he’s pulling it off, but sometimes you’re really not sure. But again, bothering to that would be more fitting in a show that was focused on Callus, and this show isn’t going to do that.
And a couple more small points on the scenes with Rex and Kanan. First, I wish they were better integrated, and while it’s not as bad as Ezra, I’m still not fond of how the show uses Chopper either or how everyone just knows what he’s saying. But that’s an unfocused point. In focus, part of me appreciated that for once the show remembers that Kanan is blind and can’t see the Star Destroyers around them through the vacuum of space. On the other hand, I’m annoyed at Kanan calling Rex an oldtimer when they’re more or less the same age; sure Rex looks much older, but he’s not; it’s entirely possible Kanan is actually older since the show/verse is very fuzzy on ages.
