As Star Wars Rebels Season 4 is entering into its last episodes, I have decided to do a series review of it. I'm going to start with Season 1 Episodes 1-9 and go from there.
Now many Star Wars fans like to claim that Rebels isn't worth their time, especially after the Clone Wars TV series. I agree that Rebels had a rough start, however it has increased in quality over time. Season 3 was amazing and Season 4 is even better. Dave Filoni and his team continue to do an amazing job. Whether that is writing a good planned out story, bringing legends concepts and characters back to canon, or making some really cool visual scenes. In fact, if you liked Star Wars the Clone Wars, I believe it should be highly recommended that you begin to and continue to watch Star Wars Rebels.
Season 1 of Rebels had a rough start in my opinion; but what tv show doesn't have a rough first season?
Rebels started off with four shorts to introduce the characters:
Here's a link to all the Star Wars Rebels Shorts ---- SWRS
--- Thanks to Jeffrey Reisdorf for putting them into a playlist.
From here on out, Spoilers Ahead
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This is the opening scene of the first episode. The part at 2:25 is one of the best scenes to introduce the show and where it is going. The original connection between Kanan and Ezra is well played.
As the season premier opens up, it introduces the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) as well as Agent Kallus. Kallus captures Ezra when the Ghost Crews fails at their mission. Kallus during the first two seasons seems irrelevant -- almost like that pesky antagonist who won't leave the group of main characters alone. However, Kallus will eventually play a bigger role, making him one of my favorite characters in this show.
In this clip, it shows the introduction to Agent Kallus. Before this scene happened, Ezra stole a Jedi Holocron from Kanan on the ship called the Ghost. He opens it, making an important connection between Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars Episode 3 (the coded message that Obi-Wan leaves at the Jedi Temple in Episode 3):
Then of course, there is the epic scene of the opening premier. Although it isn't hard to figure out the truth, Kanan's reveal that he is a Jedi is amazing. And the response of Agent Kallus expands on the Empire's continual purge of the Jedi Order. This is probably one of my favorite scenes in the entire show:
At the end of the first episode, we see Agent Kallus calling the Grand Inquisitor. This is awesome because it introduces an entire sect of dark side users who aren't fully Sith -- like Darth Vader and Sidious:
The most important thing from this episode is the message that Obi-Wan left, which makes me legitimize Star Wars Rebels as a show in general. The Jedi Holocron will make an appearance in later seasons, having an actual role that will affect the main characters of the show:
After the season premier, we are acquainted with the Ghost Crew. Hera Syndulla, the captain of the Ghost (and probably the best pilot in the galaxy -- next to Han [we'll see what Solo movie says] ), Chopper (c1-10p is a veteran of the Clone Wars whose y-wing was shot down during the ryloth campaign -- which a connection to the Clone Wars Series), Sabine Wren (a mandalorian who was formerly a cadet of the Imperial Academy on Mandalore -- which may be another connection back to the Clone Wars series), Garazeb Orrelios (one of the last Lasat and survivor of basically an Imperial Genocide carried out on his people, which will give him an interesting connection to Agent Kallus later [also, did you know Zeb was the original design for Chewie?] ), Kanan Jarrus (the padawan of Jedi Master Depa Billaba -- he escaped execution after the Great Jedi Purge, which will give way to an interesting story line in season 2), and of course, Ezra Bridger (an orphan boy from Lothal with incredible force sensitivity, whose parents stood up against the Empire and disappeared).
The next couple episodes were basically filler episodes, but important none the less. Episode 3 gives introduction to R2-D2 and C3PO, as well as Bail Organa (who is one of the founders of the Rebel Alliance). It also gives a little backstory to Zeb and what happened to his people.
Episode 4 is a mostly forgettable episode. It accomplishes showing the growing brother like relationship between Zeb and Ezra. They steal a TIE Fighter and end up hiding it in the hills of Lothal. This TIE Fighter will play a role in a later episode.
Episode 5 was incredibly important. The Rebels are tricked into going to an Imperial Prison to save Master Luminara Unduli. However, when they get there, they find that she had died a long time ago. It introduced the Grand Inquisitor and the Inquisitor rotating lightsaber. An interesting concept is that we learn the Inquisitors, specifically the Grand Inquisitor, study all the lightsaber forms of the Jedi in order to kill other Jedi:
Episode 6 was an interesting look at what goes on inside an Imperial Academy. It is also a good episode to build on Ezra's character. We learn in this episode that the Inquisitors seek out force sensitives and capture them. Which seems very similar to an episode arc in the Clone Wars where Sidious attempted to steal force sensitive children and use them as dark side adepts. We also are introduced to a Force Sensitive that was of interest to the Grand Inquisitor -- Jai Kell. Though he plays a minor role, he will return in later episodes.
Episode 7 is crazy. It furthers the mystery of the Ghost Crew's mission finder known as "Fulcrum." It does a good job of building Sabine's character as well as her relationship with Hera. It also introduces an Asteroid Base that was once used during the Clone Wars and that will be visited in a near episode. We learn that "Fulcrum" is an agent that helps supply missions and resources to multiple Rebel Cells. This infers that there are hundreds of cells across the galaxy not yet formed into the Rebel Alliance.
Episode 8 introduces a character called Tseebo at fifteenth anniversary of the establishment of the Galactic Empire. This episode serves as character development for Ezra, mostly because the dubbed "Empire Day" is on his birthday. We learn more about Ezra's parents and are hinted to that they may be alive by Tseebo, who was a close friend of them.
Episode 9 is the second part to 8, where we see the Grand Inquisitor shoot a tracking beacon onto the Phantom (the smaller ship the connects to the Ghost). Ezra and Kanan escape in the phantom and go to the Asteroid Base that was seen in episode 7. Ezra uses the force to control the beasts that inhabit the Base, which brings back the concept of Beast Trick that was used in Star Wars Episode 2 by Anakin in the Arena and from the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords video game. The Grand Inquisitor follows them with Stormtroopers. We get see this fight between Ezra and Kanan against the Grand Inquisitor, as well as see Ezra's use of the Dark Side for the first time:
Alright, so there is the first 9 episodes of Rebels. Here is a fan-made trailer for the entire season. My next post will be over the second half of Star Wars Rebels Season 1:
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