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Star Wars Rebels Season One (spoilers)

I'm sure the Empire will probably take anyone who's ruthless enough and capable of chasing down rebels and oppressing the people under their rule.
 
So in Star Trek the ships all fly upright at each other and in Star Wars they're compelled to wind through low structures rather than fly above them.
 
"Out of Darkness"

I was really excited about this episode because we were finally going to get a spotlight on Sabine and Hera. We basically knew nothing about Sabine up to this point.

Unfortunately, this ended up being a real do-nothing episode. They go pick up some boxes and fight the babies from Pitch Black. Not terribly exciting.

And we didn't learn anything about "Fulcrum".

And I had a problem with Hera and Sabine almost dying because the boys were too busy playing grab-ass with each other to make sure the shuttle wouldn't murder their crew mates...
 
He's back - Senator-In-Exile Gall Trayvis :)

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If you played a drinking game during this episode in which you have to take a shot every time one of these phrases is heard: "doubt me", "trust you" or "need to know"... you'd be dead.
 
I really liked the Sabine-Hera discussions here. We finally get a feel for their characters, and a nice, thoughtful, revealing conversation between them. I think I like their characters a lot more than the others now, and I hope we don't have to wait another five episodes for them to come out of the background again. And bonus points for passing the Bechdel Test with flying colors -- their debate was about the issues between the two women themselves, not about their feelings toward a man. (Okay, it was sort of about Fulcrum, but he was just a catalyst for the real conflict.)

Sabine now has inner dimension that I quite like -- she's not just a graffiti artist who likes demolitions, she's a former Imperial recruit and true believer who feels guilt and betrayal over her blind obedience to an Empire that she's now realized is corrupt. I really hope to see the story of her past at some point -- hopefully as an episode, though if it's done as a book, I hope my library will get it. She has a mind of her own and isn't automatically on board with Kanan and Hera; her trust has to be earned. I hope that remains part of her character.

And I think Hera has a lot of mysteries yet to be revealed. I was struck by one line where she was talking about the secrets and plans she was keeping from Sabine -- she started to say "I" something, then paused and changed it to "Kanan and I," then very carefully said "Kanan knows what he's doing." Which sounded to me like she's the real mastermind but wants it to look like Kanan's the one in charge. If that's so, I wonder why that is. There is so much more I want to learn about these women, which is more than I can say for any of the male characters in the show.

Unfortunately, after that really engaging conversation, I had to sit through a bunch of really boring action. The setting was interesting, if fanciful -- the asteroid field where asteroids kept eclipsing the sun for brief intervals. That was a clever use of environment. But the monster-siege action was kind of anticlimactic for me. I'm not sure it really served the character story. I guess the idea is that they had each other's backs in the fight and so there's more trust between them now, but that could've been conveyed better.

Also, help me out here, SW fans -- the ships use liquid fuel? What kind of liquid is that? Surely not some kind of petroleum derivative like jet fuel, right? No way that could power antigravs or a hyperdrive engine. It's gotta be some kind of handwavium substance, right?
 
"Out of Darkness"

I was really excited about this episode because we were finally going to get a spotlight on Sabine and Hera. We basically knew nothing about Sabine up to this point.

Unfortunately, this ended up being a real do-nothing episode. They go pick up some boxes and fight the babies from Pitch Black. Not terribly exciting.

And we didn't learn anything about "Fulcrum".

And I had a problem with Hera and Sabine almost dying because the boys were too busy playing grab-ass with each other to make sure the shuttle wouldn't murder their crew mates...

Yeah I sadly have to agree. There was a tiny bit of intrigue involving this Fulcrum character that never really went anywhere, and the rest was just Hera and Sabine fighting off some rather silly looking animal creatures.

And I was really hoping we'd be past the childish pranks and fighting between Zeb and Ezra by now. I have no problem with a few insults here and there, but it's hard to believe a seasoned professional like Zeb would really allow himself to be so easily distracted from a mission or from his ship duties like that.
 
One fuel type is hypermatter. There are lots of fuel types in Star Wars. Some are explosive while others are not. Some fuel cells are powered by liquid metal fuels (the Millenium Falcon uses metal fuel in its fuel cells).
 
Well, I loved Out of Darkness and loved ALL the character interactions (though I still want to take a Jawa taser to Chopper's mainframe). I think the "Fulcrum" seed served its function: Pure tease for the future.

Empire Day on the other hand was just awesome in my opinion :D (Of course, I just had some minor out-patient surgery and I'm on some loopy fun drugs at the moment ;) ).

I must admit, their plans for disruption of "festivities" (despite how surgically precise they may have been planned), seemed to border on the uncool, given the apparent number of citizens in harm's way. Whether stealing Imperial supplies, engaging in fighter battles over open grassy plains and high orbits, or sabotaging deep space conveys, It seems they've at least tried to steer clear of endagering the innocent up to this point. As a kid in the 80's, I wouldn't have thought twice about it, but these days with our recent history, it made me dwell on the choice a little. But, rebels are going to do what rebels are going to do I suppose.
 
So any guess as to Fulcrum's identity?

I'm assuming it's (she?) is a pre-established character since they're being so secretive about it.

Mon was my first guess, but the voice did have a strong American accent.
 
Nice continuity with the effects of the Kyber/Kaiburr crystal from the unfinished Clone Wars episodes. How many of these big, really powerful crystals are there, though? We can infer from the TCW episodes that the Death Star planet-killer laser was powered by one, and the one found in those episodes was supposed to be incredibly rare.

They answer a question about Kyber crystals on this week's Rebels Recon. It seems that the Death Star laser would likely need several of them for the laser to have enough power to destroy a planet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8_PCwya0do
 
Empire Day was pretty great if I do say so. Is it just me or did the story seem slightly more mature than the usual shoot'em up?

Its also good to see the Empire displaying at least a hint of competence for a change. It makes the fight scenes so much more exciting.
 
I predict that tehy will be more and more competent as the show goes on. You needed the goofball stuff to get the kiddies interested, now that they already feel a connection with the characters...
 
One thing I wonder about is why they didn't address the fact that "Empire Day" was also a very bad day for Kanaan. I mean it's also the day Order 66 went down, no? Perhaps they'll bring it up in part 2.
 
One thing I was pleased about in Empire Day is that I finally felt sympathy for Ezra. Specifically the scene where he was hearing his parents voices. Hopefully this means he'll be less of an annoying punk in future.

Two things I'm hoping for. I really want to get some back story on some of the characters. Flashbacks would be nice.

And second, an explanation of why the heck nobodies reprogrammed Chopper with a large wrench. Really, how many times has his screwing around put crewmembers lives in danger? Any time now I expect to find out that he's really an Imperial infiltration unit.
 
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