Rebels: 3x17-18
Dec. 17th, 2021 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsRebels 3x17 – Secret Cargo
The thought I kept having during this episode is that it should be so much better than it is. In some ways, this is the show I wish we’d had all along, in others it is the show we’ve actually had all along and we know how I feel about that.
If this show is going to do such a piss-poor job at focusing on its own cast of characters, the least it could do is make them shallow while being a set of eyes through which we get to see the galaxy at this point in SW history. I wish we had regular checks on business going on in the Senate, so that Mon Mothma’s speech didn’t make it so instantly obvious that this episode was going to be about her.
Except…it isn’t about her. She’s the catalyst for there to be a plot this episode, but we’re not really seeing her as a character. She’s a part of the lore so she’s here for her cameo appearance, but if the episode is about anyone it is yet again Ezra. It’s not even good at that, which is part of why I don’t like this show being about Ezra so much, because it’s even bad at that. He rarely actually gets development, and this isn’t one of those sporadic episodes. It just hands him more new skills that he doesn’t really have to earn, he just has them when the plot needs him to have them.
In a similar way, I don’t like the way the Gold Squadron pilots are written. Why do they have to be stuck up assholes just so that they can be shown up by the Ghost crew? You could make them tired after constantly being on the run for a few days, they can be snappish, and maybe give them a valid reason to have doubts about the Ghost crew. That is, if you think there needs to be that conflict at all. But like always, the show has to make others look worse so Ezra looks better.
There isn’t a much clearer definition of a Gary Stu/Mary Sue than that.
I kind of had some passing thoughts during the episode as to whether I thought this seemed more like Legends Mon Mothma or current canon Mon Mothma. I didn’t really come to any conclusion, but I can see this being Legends Mon Mothma so that’s fine with me.
Though it does further raise some questions as to how Luke wasn’t told about any of the other Jedi who were around during the Rebellion. The more Ezra makes of a name for himself, the more he should be talked about.*
It weird that for a show that pushes the family thing so hard that they basically make it literal at times, they so rarely have the characters together anymore. That would be okay if I had bought into the family dynamic back when it was on screen more often, but they’re not selling it all that much now.
~~~~
*Of all things to prompt a below the cut comment, I managed to stumble on one from a passing comment on the episode. Because why Luke thinks he’s the only Jedi left is something our roleplaying game oddly self-corrected for. For a while it seemed like we couldn’t make it fit, but then our two semi-trained Jedi characters died and my barely trained quasi-Jedi didn’t make much of a name for herself in the Rebellion. There might have been rumors of someone else using a lightsaber (sometimes, though rarely and she’s not that good) and *could* be another Jedi, but very few people would actually know or might have bothered to tell Luke during the time of the movies. The rest of the EU would be another matter I’m sure.
Rebels 3x18 – Double Agent Droid
Once again I feel somewhat conflicted about how I feel about this one. It’s not bad exactly, but it requires everyone to be an idiot, and that’s bad.
I sort of dreaded this one going in, since it was clearly going to be a droid episode and I don’t enjoy those as a rule. And while this one did make Chopper less annoying for part of it, AP then gets more dialog and is plenty annoying too. And while I should be on AP’s side as he’s the only one picking up that something really weird is up with Chopper, I feel like his reasons are flawed and still don’t like him. Which I guess makes it more reasonable that the others don’t take him seriously (plus Wedge not knowing them very well), but it doesn’t stop it from being annoying.
I really wanted this to be a Wedge episode instead of a droid one. I have fond feeling towards Wedge, admittedly more from the books than the fact that he’s a movie character, which is more than I can say for the dumb droids. Although I suppose if we had gotten a Wedge character episode out of this, I would have been complaining that we get so little for the actual main characters that it’s weird we get one for Wedge. The solution to that would be to focus in on the show’s main (non-Ezra) cast, but I’m kind of past thinking that’s going to happen, so I’ll just start hoping for what I can get among the supporting cast. Although I prefer that not to be about the droids.
The fact that the show made the Imperial Intelligence crew so incompetent put a bad taste in my mouth, but I suppose it was necessary since the show was going to let our characters off without any consequences for what happens here. The defeat here is stupid and shallow, and even if I’m glad that Hera got the victory it came way too easily.
If the Intelligence folks had sent off one message about the Ghost crew having another droid that they send on missions, at least that would have been a small consequence. Preferably they should have sent in at least one status report on what they were doing, at least once the Rebels had hacked their data codes, so that even when they were destroyed Thrawn would have had at least a few more pieces of intel to work with.
Not they should have been destroyed so easily anyway, since it makes no sense. But for this show they had to be destroyed, because the Empire can’t be intimidating for more than a second or two at a time. And the characters can’t ever be unsure of how successful they were so that they have to make choices with imperfect information, that would also be intimidating.
Even though this show has had a couple of decent episodes recently, I find myself still getting annoyed with it. It never actually builds up enough good will to coast over the episodes that bother me, and for all I said this episode isn’t all that bad, it’s brought back my…irritation with the way this show tells stories. And this time, not even because of Ezra (although the droids are the second most annoying beings on the show).
The thought I kept having during this episode is that it should be so much better than it is. In some ways, this is the show I wish we’d had all along, in others it is the show we’ve actually had all along and we know how I feel about that.
If this show is going to do such a piss-poor job at focusing on its own cast of characters, the least it could do is make them shallow while being a set of eyes through which we get to see the galaxy at this point in SW history. I wish we had regular checks on business going on in the Senate, so that Mon Mothma’s speech didn’t make it so instantly obvious that this episode was going to be about her.
Except…it isn’t about her. She’s the catalyst for there to be a plot this episode, but we’re not really seeing her as a character. She’s a part of the lore so she’s here for her cameo appearance, but if the episode is about anyone it is yet again Ezra. It’s not even good at that, which is part of why I don’t like this show being about Ezra so much, because it’s even bad at that. He rarely actually gets development, and this isn’t one of those sporadic episodes. It just hands him more new skills that he doesn’t really have to earn, he just has them when the plot needs him to have them.
In a similar way, I don’t like the way the Gold Squadron pilots are written. Why do they have to be stuck up assholes just so that they can be shown up by the Ghost crew? You could make them tired after constantly being on the run for a few days, they can be snappish, and maybe give them a valid reason to have doubts about the Ghost crew. That is, if you think there needs to be that conflict at all. But like always, the show has to make others look worse so Ezra looks better.
There isn’t a much clearer definition of a Gary Stu/Mary Sue than that.
I kind of had some passing thoughts during the episode as to whether I thought this seemed more like Legends Mon Mothma or current canon Mon Mothma. I didn’t really come to any conclusion, but I can see this being Legends Mon Mothma so that’s fine with me.
Though it does further raise some questions as to how Luke wasn’t told about any of the other Jedi who were around during the Rebellion. The more Ezra makes of a name for himself, the more he should be talked about.*
It weird that for a show that pushes the family thing so hard that they basically make it literal at times, they so rarely have the characters together anymore. That would be okay if I had bought into the family dynamic back when it was on screen more often, but they’re not selling it all that much now.
~~~~
*Of all things to prompt a below the cut comment, I managed to stumble on one from a passing comment on the episode. Because why Luke thinks he’s the only Jedi left is something our roleplaying game oddly self-corrected for. For a while it seemed like we couldn’t make it fit, but then our two semi-trained Jedi characters died and my barely trained quasi-Jedi didn’t make much of a name for herself in the Rebellion. There might have been rumors of someone else using a lightsaber (sometimes, though rarely and she’s not that good) and *could* be another Jedi, but very few people would actually know or might have bothered to tell Luke during the time of the movies. The rest of the EU would be another matter I’m sure.
Rebels 3x18 – Double Agent Droid
Once again I feel somewhat conflicted about how I feel about this one. It’s not bad exactly, but it requires everyone to be an idiot, and that’s bad.
I sort of dreaded this one going in, since it was clearly going to be a droid episode and I don’t enjoy those as a rule. And while this one did make Chopper less annoying for part of it, AP then gets more dialog and is plenty annoying too. And while I should be on AP’s side as he’s the only one picking up that something really weird is up with Chopper, I feel like his reasons are flawed and still don’t like him. Which I guess makes it more reasonable that the others don’t take him seriously (plus Wedge not knowing them very well), but it doesn’t stop it from being annoying.
I really wanted this to be a Wedge episode instead of a droid one. I have fond feeling towards Wedge, admittedly more from the books than the fact that he’s a movie character, which is more than I can say for the dumb droids. Although I suppose if we had gotten a Wedge character episode out of this, I would have been complaining that we get so little for the actual main characters that it’s weird we get one for Wedge. The solution to that would be to focus in on the show’s main (non-Ezra) cast, but I’m kind of past thinking that’s going to happen, so I’ll just start hoping for what I can get among the supporting cast. Although I prefer that not to be about the droids.
The fact that the show made the Imperial Intelligence crew so incompetent put a bad taste in my mouth, but I suppose it was necessary since the show was going to let our characters off without any consequences for what happens here. The defeat here is stupid and shallow, and even if I’m glad that Hera got the victory it came way too easily.
If the Intelligence folks had sent off one message about the Ghost crew having another droid that they send on missions, at least that would have been a small consequence. Preferably they should have sent in at least one status report on what they were doing, at least once the Rebels had hacked their data codes, so that even when they were destroyed Thrawn would have had at least a few more pieces of intel to work with.
Not they should have been destroyed so easily anyway, since it makes no sense. But for this show they had to be destroyed, because the Empire can’t be intimidating for more than a second or two at a time. And the characters can’t ever be unsure of how successful they were so that they have to make choices with imperfect information, that would also be intimidating.
Even though this show has had a couple of decent episodes recently, I find myself still getting annoyed with it. It never actually builds up enough good will to coast over the episodes that bother me, and for all I said this episode isn’t all that bad, it’s brought back my…irritation with the way this show tells stories. And this time, not even because of Ezra (although the droids are the second most annoying beings on the show).
