Rebels Season 3 Review: Ep. 4 Hera's Heroes

I really didn't expect Thrawn losing his temper.

 

Sometimes Thrawn's voice seems off to me

 

Decent episode. I liked Thrawn ok. I imagine we all thought something in our heads when we read the books with him how he sounded.

 

The plot for me, didn't work as well as the last couple ones..

 

Thrawn dominated this episode. I was half-expecting for Thrawn to shoot Hera's home after Thrawn allowed the Rebels to escape. Losing his temper was slightly out of place, but I think it was added to add depth to the character, rather than a character who is passive, calculating, and cold 100 % of the time. Thrawn granting the Rebels their escape because of Thrawn's honorable code also added to the character. I loved how he stunned Ezra as Ezra started to make a move, expecting it. I am curious how this will play out in the end. What did Thrawn learn?

Cham, after reading Lords of the Sith, has always seemed more like his CW character than how he was in the novel. I would like to see that Cham, but I don't foresee that happening. Hera and the rest of the crew were great, per usual. Seeing Hera break her ethical code for a private mission added depth to the character, too. All in all, much better than last week's episode but not as strong as the season opener and "Holocrons of Fate".

8/10

 

I liked the episode but it was my least favorite of the season 3 episodes. It was still a good episode though. I think part of the reason I may not like it as much as the others is that Hera is my least favorite of the Ghost crew. That being said, I liked seeing Thrawn and I've always liked Cham so getting to see him again is always good. Season 3 is off to a good start. So far we have had 3 good episodes (4 if you count the 1 hour premiere as 2 episodes) and none that I would consider questionable. Next weeks episode looks to be entertaining. I can't wait to see it.

 

Da'w poor Hera. The feels for her at the end when she's focusing on what she still has instead of what she's lost. She sounds like she's barely holding it together when she says "she'll live on"

Hera is my favorite of the Ghost crew.

 

I kind of expected her to blow up her house.

 

I liked this episode. I enjoyed having the focus on Hera, and I liked when at the end of the episode, when recounting what she's got, she starts by mentioning Kanan

True. It might be off by the way her character is but I got the idea that it was important for her.

 

Caution - incoming negativity! (I wasn't going to share but ultimately thought it would be unfair to self-censor just because it isn't positive.)

I wasn't feeling this one much but I am older than the target audience. I know it's a kid's show but many of the writers produce episodes that can still engage me as an adult. A show doesn't need to be dark or violent to do this - I like the use of imagination, visual art, creative writing risks, humour, and complex characters. This episode didn't really engage me on any of these levels.

The plot contradicted the character strengths and the action seemed forced. How is action supposed to have emotional meaning when the bad guys always miss, the characters use the opportunity for unrealistic exposition, and the protagonists never get hurt? I really enjoyed Thrawn in the Zahn novels but feel these writers have him coming on a little strong. It's like they've tried to paint a full picture of the character so quickly that they've layered him on too thick and left him coming across like a monologuing caricature of himself. But that's just my opinion...

 

Yep.
22 minute episodes must be outrageously tough to arrange into a good story...things get densely compacted and sometimes the end product can feel a little forced.

Reliance on solid character foundations is therefore essential, to establish backstory and the audience's resulting awareness of subtlety. (With a basis of solid character development, the audience can be trusted to "read a character's mind" given a situational context and facial expression.) --But it also takes time to do that...I think they've done a pretty good job with this balancing act of pushing the along main story and setting foundations for characters.

This time the plot (perceivably) suffered for the sake of a bit more insight to Hera's character, and a *great* deal into Thrawn's. –Clearly not the standard "cookie cutter" imperial officer.

I'll take it. This is gonna be fun.

 

I sure did, no one interrupts or embarrasses Thrawn & not experience a little of his other side.

 

Didn't the officer call the trinket trash, rather than Hera?

I'm somewhat between you two. Hera was my favorite after season 1, but I felt like she was shafted in season 2. She brings Zeb and Sabine on a potential suicide mission when getting the b-wing, just to have company, and advocated for killing space whales.

 

Im watching "A New Hope" and here is one thing that my mind is pondering about. Im at the scene when Luke cleans up Artooie and Leia comes with the message gap of "help me Obi-Wan". I know its basically the end of R1 when she receives the plans but she has to know about Obi-Wan. It could be that Bail Organa told her about Obi-Wan and she was prolly the only one who was suppose to send the plans to her father thats why she got caught in Ep. 4. what gets me is that I dont think Obi-Wan would be in or mentioned in R1 since its the story of how they get the plans. It is possible that the REBELS, being the other seperate rebel crew would be apart of a plan to tell Obi-Wan about a secret plans? I mean Maul says "hes alive" and I would like for Kanan to see him prior to the end of his character or the end of Rebels. or maybe Ezra telling Obi-Wan what he saw in his holocron vision. I still think that the ending of Rebels should be a Anthology movie with how they show the crew end. bring Ahsoka back with a battle with Vader, plans of the empires "death star" and Gelen telling the Rebels about it to help the rest of the rebelioin. like to see the demise of Ezra, if he turns dark. Then I would like to see Kanan go to dagobah to come to peace with the force and meet Yoda. Maybe and Obi-Wan vs. Maul final fight. Kanan vs. Ezra duel. My mind is going since right now im watching SW. man, the only thing making alil bit happy about R1 is that its a SW story...

 

I liked that Thrawn showed some emotion. I enjoyed Thrawn in the books, but he was a little too calculated and perfect in some cases. I hope they have him learn from his own plans as well as missteps he makes, to show that it is his overall learning of the enemy that is his advantage - not that he is a puppet master from the beginning, and he is just stringing them along just to play with them.

I too thought the plot was a bit of a stretch - but not because of Hera's choices. Hera has made plenty of wild and somewhat boneheaded moves before, so it wasn't too out of character. Just kinda goofy.

Thrawn pouncing on Ezra before he had time to know what hit him - excellent!

Watching Ezra pull his mask up and down over and over every time they walked in or out of a room made me cringe. Partly because I didn't want to see my favorite Stormtrooper helmet just be a big flap, and partly because it was simply too often.

 

This one could have benefited from the multi-part format the clone wars used to employ.

Overall- happy to see hera have some dialogue again. I love her voice and the character has heart.

Thrawn is a lot like i remember as a little kid, and I'm really curious to see what he does next.

A moderate upgrade from last week. If they can stay this consistent throughout, we may yet have the best season so far.

 

The review from eleven-thirty:

http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2016/10/rebels-revisited-escalation/