REBELS REVIEW SEASON 3 "STEPS INTO SHADOW"

I thought it was a fantastic episode, It was interesting seeing Ezra's new persona with the holocron that speaks, Kanan's test with the Bendu, Grand Admiral Thrawn's grand entrance to our screens, I enjoyed his run in with Hera.

 

Yeah, which sucks, because Hera was my favorite character from season 1. She had some unlikeable moments in seasons 2, and I hope she gets the spotlight more this time.

That's one downside to watching trailers. It sorta spoils that the Bendu will come back because we need the scene where the holocrons merge, prolly in holocrons of fate.

I hope not. I want thrawn to wreck house and go away, like Vader from season 2. To have him die before the rebellion begins would be super lame.

 

I went back and watched the episode again today and with my full attention.

I really think Hondo is going to be a big part of the season. I would love to see him take on the Han Solo arc.

Ezra talking about never letting his friends be hurt again is already talking about absolutes which will not go well.

I have watched and read some reviews about the episode and everyone is bashing that it was so convenient that Bendu was on the planet that the rebels base is on...I dunno why everyone is saying this? Rewatch the end of season 2 and just being a star wars fan everyone should know that nothing happens by accident. The force called them to that planet for a reason in my opinion. You can't tell me the story group didn't know what was on that planet before they decided to take the story there.

Overall this premiere sets the tone for what I hope is the start of a dark season, main characters are going to die and going to get hurt. I don't think this ends with a happy ending.

8.5/10 for the premiere episode

 

A little more info about Gov. Pryce.

 

While I get Ezra is a Jedi in training and that gives him some street cred, I can't see him being made a commander all of a sudden. Sabine would make a far more capable leader and seems more battle tested. Ezra would serve that spec ops role on a mission and it would be interesting to see him struggling to follow Sabine's order while under the holocrons influence.

 

Yeah he pretty much proved that he isn't ready to be a responsible leader yet .

 

Great catch. I guess I have to start paying attention to twitter now.

I don't think it was "all of a sudden" hasn't it been like 6 months since the last episode? Ezra really stepped up in Kanan's absence, although we the viewers don't know anything about the missing missions.

 

You make a good point. It is kind of a pattern now in Rebels though I don't know how much of this recurring cycle is due to normal storytelling devices. Having protagonists succeed without challenges and conflict would probably make a poor story but there are different ways to introduce difficulties and TPTB seem to make a conscious choice to do this through showing up the weaknesses, "humanity", fallibilty, and amateur nature of the group.

I know the show's all about "the passionate yet ragtag underdog outlaws fighting for self-determination against the slick, well financed and military drilled hierarchy of oppressive government forces" but this rebel cell can really seem a haphazard and often disfuntional unit at times! They miss obvious dangers, often take unnecessary risks for little benefit, and place undue focus on low priority objectives. They consistantly fail to properly plan contingincies for missions and make bad strategic decisions that often get their allies killed unnecessarily.

There's plenty of times these Rebels have failed to demonstrate competent leadership - Hera especially. (Now take a breath before you lovely Hera fans rush to retalliate in her defence, that opinion ↑ is just an objective critique and not sexist, speciesist, or prejudice based hate speech - she's lead way more than anyone, the ship was her responsibility and she has many admirable qualities. Dealing with constructive criticism is part of the leadership burden and she'd know this.)

Still... at least there's plenty of room for them all to grow. I'll continue to cheer for them and despise their enemies regardless.

 

It really doesn't matter how long it's been. You have Rex, Sabine, or Ezra. Unless it's a mission involving Jedi business, he would be the last to put in command just because of his lack of experience.

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 26, 2016, Original Post Date: Sep 26, 2016 ---

Anybody else wondering what Ezra learned from the holicron. Maybe a neat trick like freezing blaster bolts. I''m just saying that would be crazy.

 

Now that's how to open a season.

I think most people have already covered my points but I really enjoyed this episode. I love the darker tone. I'm hooked and I'm definitely going to be watching each episode when it comes out.

For me, it just adds to one of my main questions concerning Rebels - where do the characters go? I hope someone like Thrawn isn't just beaten in one season. Furthermore, I really hope that the likes of the Ezra and Kanan are killed off before ANH. Anyway's... I'm just speculating.

A Strong 8/10. Excellent.

 

It was a nice chapter. I certainly hope they introduced Thrawn for a good reason. He's far more clever and experienced than the rebels. For this season to have coherence, Thrawn should prevail at some point (maybe destroying a large part of rebels operations where our guys operate), even killing one or two from our crew, and then be reassigned to some other sector. Thrawn cannot lose battles many times without leaving us wondering why he is Grand Admiral when he cannot defeat these guys.

 

I like that Thrawn let the rebels escape with the y-wings. It really showed that he is going to be a chess player, always three moves ahead of everyone else.

It has been said over and over, but a dark Ezra is very interesting. I especially got a bit of a surprise when Ezra wanted to casually kill the scout ship so that they "wouldn't leave any witnesses."

The longer Rebels goes on the more it is looking to me like the whole series will be about the rise, fall, and redemption of Ezra. The Anakin parallels were in your face for this episode.

 

Eleven-thirtyeight just posted this:

http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2016/09/rebels-revisited-room-breathe/

 

Some interesting comments.

 

Great read. This group and other have disliked that Ezra was given command.

I think it makes a lot of sense. With Kanan out of the action, Ezra prolly had to step up in a big way for that 6 month gap. It isn't that he is the most tactically sound, but he is the only Jedi presence. I bet many missions were won solely based on Ezra's force powers. Sato wanted to reward his success. It quickly turned out that Ezra wasn't up for the challenge, but I can see why he was given a chance.

 

Kanan: Oh this? It’s a Sith holocron. It’s super duper dangerous and stuff. Wouldn’t want it falling into the wrong hands. Here, why don’t you keep it, character I just met.

Wasn’t this the MacGuffin of season two’s finale? Wasn’t this the thing that was going to help defeat the Sith? Isn’t this what Yoda told them to go to Malachor for? Meh, I guess we’ll worry about all that later, huh.

 

Kind of. But that doesn't lessen the importance of the holocron, it's a way of telling us that this new Bendu character, and the things he says, are really important.

 

One way I sort of interpreted that scene was Bendu using the force to take the holocron from Kanan .

 

That's an interesting way of looking at it. That didn't cross my mind at all, but replaying the scene in my head I can sort of see where you're coming from. We're going to get more of this character, so we will see what becomes of it.

 

The reason I was thinking like that is because Bendu is not a jedi/sith. He referred to himself as "the inbetwwen." or something along those lines as in he knows the generalities and the wide ranging abilities of the force. This makes him not only more powerful but way more dangerous than palpatine even.If we are going to be seeing new implentations and ideologies of the force in this season then it makes sense to me that Kanan wasnt even aware that he was being Kenobi'd.