SWNN Review: Star Wars Rebels – A Princess on Lothal

rebel welcome leiaSuffering from The Force Awakens withdrawal? Have no fear, Star Wars Rebels  has got you covered! The second half of season 2 has just kicked off, welcoming back a familiar rebellious face, though one who’s not officially a rebel just yet. Princess Leia made her triumphant debut in animated format and lent a helping hand to the Phonenix rebel cell. More after the jump and as always beware of SPOILERS … 

 

The action picks up right where it left us last time. Former Lothal governor, Ryder Azadi, is talking with Kanan and Hera (via hologram) about the news Ezra received regarding his parents’ fate. During the conversation, Hera reveals that having heard of Phoenix’s losses on Garel, Senator Bail Organa is sending three new ships to aid in their cause.

 

Upon arrival, the three “hammerhead” ships are stopped by an Imperial light cruiser and a squadron of TIE fighters under the supervision of deck officer, Lieutenant List. They are informed that Lothal is now a restricted zone by decree of the Emperor. List isn’t thrilled to learn that the convoy ferrying “relief supplies” for Lothalites is under the guidance of Princess Leia Organa. The Imperial officer notes that Alderaan is often considered a meddling element in the Imperial Senate. It’s revealed that ships Leia is responsible for often find a way of ending up stolen by rebels. List decides to take matters into his own hands, heading planet-side to greet the Princess.

 

3 hammerhead ships

 

On Lothal, Kanan and Ezra greet Leia in stormtrooper and academy cadet guises respectively. Leia acknowledges that she’s aware of who they are and advises they keep their helmets on so that the deck officer doesn’t also become so. Our rebel crew soon realize that the transfer of the ships won’t be a particularly easy task, as Leia orders them to steal the vessels.

 

Kanan and Ezra’s worries are soon expounded by two more snags in the plan. In order to break the cycle of Leia’s ships winding up in rebel hands, List not only locks down each vessel with gravity locks, but also provides two AT-AT walkers to serve as sentries. Making matters even worse, Chopper and Ryder are captured by stormtroopers.

 

gravity locks

 

As Kanan and Ezra try to talk the troopers into letting them escort the prisoners to prison, Hera and the rest of the crew arrive with the Ghost and start blasting away. The rebels “abduct” the Princess and the two faux-troopers while liberating Ryder.

 

On board the Ghost, Ezra is seen still struggling with the loss of both his parents. Leia and Ezra have a heart to heart, with the Princess able to lift his spirits and inspire him to focus on continuing to help people in need.

 

Our crew comes up with a plan to liberate the Alderaanian ships. The Ghost will provide distraction and cover fire, while the gravity locks are dealt with somehow. Sabine offers to release the locks by using detonators. However, Ryder states that this would be a fruitless effort. He then reveals that he worked on assembling the gravity locks while an Imperial prisoner and that he knows how to disable them.

 

rebelplan

 

The plan goes off relatively well. The Princess distracts the Imperial contingent, stating that Kanan “rescued” her and then the Ghost appears. During the liberation, Leia and Ryder bear witness to both Kanan and Ezra’s semi-Jedi status. Kanan uses his lightsaber to hack off a couple legs of one walker, downing it and Ezra uses the Force to disarm a couple of troopers. Ryder is able to take down the other one, already weakened by torpedo barrages from the Ghost, using the engines of one of the freed transports.

 

Leia allows Ezra to stun her, before he takes her transport. She then berates Lt. List for allowing the rebels to commandeer her vessels and promises to inform the senate of the inability of Lothal’s Imperial garrison to provide proper protection.

 

ghostrescue3

 

Meanwhile, on board the Ghost, Ryder decides to forego a life in hiding in favor of freedom fighting. He had initially been reluctant to get involved in the rebellion, fearing a return to prison. The former governor was inspired by the bravery of our rebel heroes and feels that they’ve started something worthwhile. Instead he agrees to return to Lothal, joining the cause.

 

The Light Side

 

Pesky Alderaan

It was cool to see mention of Imperial annoyance with Alderaan. Yes, the Empire does a good job of using their propaganda machine to brainwash its citizens. However, the act it committed, obliterating the planet in A New Hope is horrendous. The idea that this planet already had a shady reputation before its destruction, makes it a bit more believable that the galactic masses might have accepted this action as necessary on some level.

 

leia and list

 

No Forcing of a familiar face.

Some may view Leia or other familiar characters’ inclusion in the show as unnecessary fan service. Yet this one didn’t feel forced. We know that Senator Organa plays a key role in coordinating the various rebel cells and he’s taken a special interest in the Phoenix cell, especially considering the fact that there are two Force-users among their ranks. Leia coming to help this important cell in need makes sense. If Bail places extra importance on them, who better to send that would be both reliable and believable to the Imperials than his own daughter.

 

leia and ezra heart-heart

 

Plausible explanation for replenishing lost forces.

It would be difficult to explain how the rebels had access to their own shipyards. With that being said, how could they possibly rebuild their fleet after taking major losses? How about hi-jacking ships attached to relief missions.

 

The Dark Side

 

The Imperials came across as just a bit too gullible.

I know that we’ve seen that the Imperial ranks are not exactly filled with the sharpest tools in the shed. Still, after laying out the idea that Lt. List and the Imperials already harbor some suspicions regarding Leia’s knack for losing ships to the rebels, it seemed a bit odd that he would just accept her miraculous rescue single-handedly by Kanan’s stormtrooper cover. How could he not have put three and three together? There was the initial mistrust, the amazing rescue and finally a prime Imperial target (the Ghost) appearing just as Leia is once again in Imperial hands.

 

lightsaber trooper 2

 

Deux Ex-Machina in gravity lock solution.

It seemed just a little too convenient that Ryder Azadi just so happened to know how to easily break open the gravity locks. Many shows use a deus ex-machina mechanism to get out of difficult situations, yet this one felt incredibly fortunate. Of course, time constraints probably have something to do with this.

 

ghostrescue

 

Parting Shots

Any gripes I had with this episode were certainly minor ones. The second half to the season has gotten off to a good start. I enjoyed Julie Dolan’s performance and thought it displayed a nice example of the character’s progression from Senate attache who helps covertly, to an eventual full out rebel leader.

 

The new canon has done a great job of setting up Imperial displeasure with Alderaan even before it’s destruction. We had already gotten this feeling via the fantastic novel, Lost Stars.

 

The rebel alliance has truly been set up as a group that is severely outmatched in terms of hardware, yet not so in regards to personnel.

 

ghostrescue2

 

There was a nice moment of what I call good old “Star Wars” humor in this episode, where the stormtroopers in true idiotic fashion buy into the staged abduction of Princess Leia. One trooper mentions to another that the rebels are taking hostages. The second looks over and asks, “They do that now?” That one definitely had me chuckling.

 

The Imperial walkers do continue to appear less and less menacing, as they never seem to gain a victory over the rebels, despite the odds being in their favor. The rebellion overcoming insane odds is a key ingredient in Star Wars. However, it would be nice to see them get at least a minor victory every now and then, especially in order to give extra weight to their threat in The Empire Strikes Back. 

 

lightsaber trooper

Many fans have raised concerns over the increasing amount of Force-users being introduced during the course of this show. I truly have faith in the Story Group to tie things up, connecting the canon nicely. This episode did raise another potential red flag though. Not only has Tarkin now seen Kanan and Ezra as quasi-Jedi, calling one of his lines in ANH  into question, Leia has as well. In Episode 4, she is sent by her father to get help from one of the only remaining Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi. If they know about other Force-wielding allies, why would such an importance be placed on this meeting. Doesn’t bode well for our heroes.

 

The Story Group has worked hard in tying up plot holes created between the OT and PT. One great example is Leia and her remembering her mother despite the fact that she died right after child birth being dealt with through the mysteries of the Force. In the Leia comic, she was able to sense her mother’s Force echo on Naboo.

 

What did you think of the finale? Did you like Leia’s inclusion? Did it serve the story well or would you consider it unnecessary fan service? How did you like the start of the final push for season 2? Are things picking up enough to your liking? What about the Force-user situation? Sound off in the comments below or at the Cantina.

 

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32 thoughts on “SWNN Review: Star Wars Rebels – A Princess on Lothal

  • January 21, 2016 at 11:00 pm
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    Leia looks good here. I’d be interested in how they age her for the ST series next.

  • January 21, 2016 at 11:22 pm
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    I hated how easily the walkers are dealt with. If the Ghost can do that much damage to them, why didn’t the rebels in ESB fight them with ghost-like ships? If you can simply walk up to them and cut their legs with a light saber, why didn’t Luke to that to all of them in ESB? Ugh.

    • January 21, 2016 at 11:27 pm
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      Because everyone loves contradictions!

      But seriously, this is beyond dumb and as much as I enjoy this show, I dislike that they are continually contradicting the OT.

      • January 22, 2016 at 12:36 am
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        The issue could’ve easily been avoided if they designed the walkers to be different–less powerful predecessors–from the ones in ESB.

      • January 25, 2016 at 5:23 am
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        I also didn’t like that they just dropped an at-at from 50 feet- that is absurd. As soon as I saw that, I knew the rest of the episode would be flawed.

    • January 21, 2016 at 11:33 pm
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      well Luke wasn;t that skilled with a lightsaber also if the OT came after Rebel’s then it would be so much different

      • January 22, 2016 at 1:06 am
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        The OT *does* come after Rebels……

        • January 29, 2016 at 3:39 am
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          Real time dude not Star Wars timeline

    • January 22, 2016 at 5:18 am
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      Are you really applying logic to a children’s cartoon? How the hell did you not fall off the wagon in 2002?

      • January 22, 2016 at 5:34 am
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        Hey, now. It’s a children’s show that purports to be consistent with the children’s movies it’s based on–don’t they have a team of people overseeing continuity?

        • January 22, 2016 at 1:19 pm
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          I’ll tell you why it isn’t consistent….. Dave Filoni.

          • January 25, 2016 at 5:22 am
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            seriously. I would rather have 10 awesome episodes than the inconsistent crap be have been given this season. This season started well but it has fallen hard. It seems like Filoni’s attention is elsewhere and we are getting 30% of his attention on this series. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that he has something else in development.

  • January 21, 2016 at 11:42 pm
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    if this show is meant to be set 5 years ish before episode 4
    wouldnt that make princess leia like around 14 ish as i thought
    her and luke are meant to be 19 in episode 4 and she doesnt look that
    young in the show.

    edit : apparently ezra was born the same year as leia, i cant see them as being the same age i dunno if its just the animation but she looks far more like an adult

    • January 22, 2016 at 1:33 pm
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      I think you are forgetting how *adult* 14 year old girls look.

      You probably better re-think who you check out on the street. Have any teacher friends? They can help you with this “problem”, trust me.

  • January 22, 2016 at 12:37 am
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    Yeah, the defeat of the AT-AT was a little easy, cool at the moment: “Kanan just cut off their legs!” but in hind sight, only 6-7 years later their “armor is too strong for blasters” from rebel snowspeeders on Hoth.

    Oh well, fun episode. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Just sit back and enjoy.

    • January 22, 2016 at 1:37 pm
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      I believe that I read somewhere that the ESB ATAT are a mucher stronger and bigger version then the ones in Rebels….

    • January 29, 2016 at 3:35 am
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      And light Sabres are not blasters… so that explains the cutting of the legs. Darth Vader does it as well in the new Marvel Star wars comic so there is new president for this. But again light Sabres. Yeah

  • January 22, 2016 at 1:47 am
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    kanan in the stormtrooper armor and wielding the sabre was awsome to see. but pleaaase can we stop with the stormtroopers are terrible shots. i mean its embarrassing at this point. no self respecting military would let that happen. yes, yes kids show, but at a certain point it gets to be too much.

    • January 22, 2016 at 1:35 pm
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      When it comes to the heroes in Star Wars getting out of impossible situations, I think it is implied that there are other forces at work helping the stormtroopers “miss” all these shots.

      You know, that thing called The Force? Surrounds, penetrates, binds, that stuff?

      Let loose a bit, it’s fantasy.

      • January 23, 2016 at 2:19 am
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        come man, “because magic” has nothing to do with this. stormtroopers can’t aim is running joke, thats all, a joke that can hurt the suspense of scenes. besides, we’ve seen the imperial academies in the new canon, and they only graduate the best of the best. these numskulls shouldn’t have made it past their first week. anyway, is this a nitpick? absolutely. but it really stands out in an otherwise awesome show.

        • January 23, 2016 at 6:22 am
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          I disagree. When they are shooting at other stuff that are not heroes (which is rare, seeing as we are usually following heroes, so we don’t see it as often, but it exists in places like Battlefront: Twilight Company) they are pretty effective. (see Battle of Hoth)

  • January 22, 2016 at 1:38 pm
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    It is more then probable that all Jedis of the Rebel show die or disappear before ANH. Therefore Obi-Wan is the only Jedi hope for Leia’s call….

  • January 23, 2016 at 3:37 pm
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    Neither Kanan nor Ezra are really Jedi from an in universe point of view IMO. Tarkin and Leia could simply have been thinking of Obi-Wan as the only remaining properly trained Jedi – plus, let’s face it, one or both is likely to die or cease to be a Jedi before the show ends.

  • January 25, 2016 at 5:19 am
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    Very weak episode. They go from “this plan is impossible” to toppling an At-At in several seconds. Another episode where they are banking on the audiences nostalgia factor of having a member from the OT to overlook the weaknesses.

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