Category Archives: Rebels

Everything You Fear to Lose: Remembering Star Wars: Rebels

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1. Spark of Rebellion

“We should watch Star Wars Rebels.”

“Hmm.” I don’t look up from my phone. I’m scrolling through Twitter, words and images rolling along without my registering them.

My then-fiancé, now-husband, has made some variation on this request several times in the past few months. It’s 2016, somewhere during the hiatus betweens seasons 2 and 3, and the Star Wars renaissance is building momentum after the enthusiastic response to The Force Awakens and the curiosity surrounding the yet-to-be-released Rogue One. It’s before the election that changes everything, before Carrie Fisher’s death, before my Leia tattoo, before we start our podcast, before, before–

And my greatest problem, in that moment, is that I don’t know how to tell him that I’m not quite ready to let go of The Clone Wars, which we’ve recently binged on Netflix, not ready to make room in my heart for the Ghost crew’s stories yet. I don’t know how to say it because it sounds stupid. What sounds even worse is that I still smart when I think about Ahsoka leaving the order, or Fives’s death, or Obi-Wan’s loss of Satine. Continue reading →

Rebels Review: A Fool’s Hope and Family Reunion – and Farewell

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The end of an era. We here at Tosche Station have been watching and reviewing Star Wars Rebels since the very beginning which makes this series finale rather bittersweet. And so, one last time, we all sat down to take a look at these final two episodes: “A Fool’s Hope” and “Family Reunion – and Farewell”.

This is your first and only spoiler warning. Continue reading →

Rebels Review: Wolves and a Door and A World Between Worlds

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Let’s get this out of the way: I did not like last night’s episodes of Rebels. If you did, I am super happy for you, and you probably shouldn’t read this review.

I procrastinated on writing this review because I don’t enjoy disliking things about Star Wars. I have my preferences, and I admit I was biased against these two episodes of Rebels knowing there would be Mortis connections, but deep down I wanted to be wrong. I would much rather talk about things I enjoy rather than things I dislike.

There were things I liked about these episodes, and that’s probably why I’m so frustrated. The idea of the Empire wanting something with the Jedi Temple on Lothal is a solid plot. We know from Season 2 and Minister Tua that the Empire came to Lothal for a reason, and not just to build the TIE Defender. I can even accept a little bit of Force mysticism; perhaps the Lothal Temple was very strong in the Force, or amplified people’s powers, etc. etc. I enjoyed all the scenes with Sabine and the minister. I have been waiting for a scene like this since Thrawn joined the show — and to be honest, I’m a bit bummed we didn’t get that scene with Thrawn. I always love Palpatine, especially played by Ian McDiarmid. The animation was brilliant, especially the portal animation, which reminded me a lot of the Tale of the Three Brothers from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Kevin Kiner’s music continues to be one of the best things about the series. The Ghost crew saving the day is always fun to watch. Continue reading →

Rebels Review: Rebel Assault

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Pew pew pew pew pew!

This week’s episode of Star Wars Rebels fulfilled a lot of fan wishes while marking the end of the first half of the fourth and last season of the show. It seems odd that we’re already at the mid-season hiatus when the show has only been back for four weeks and seven episodes total. While it’s nice to have episodes air back to back, it feels like this season is barreling to a close and I’m not sure how exactly everything is going to be able to tie up by the end of the season. Regardless of those concerns, this episode of Rebels did a lot of things well and only missed the mark for me a few times. It’s without a doubt my favorite episode of the season so far, and one of my top favorites overall. More spoilery thoughts after the cut!

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Rebels Review: Kindred and Crawler Commanders

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I own it. The Force mysticism threads that run through Rebels just don’t work for me.

When this series began, I was hopeful we’d be seeing more of the Rebel cells and grassroots resistance of the to the Empire. To be certain we’ve got that in chunks here and there, but so often this show just gets bogged down by asking questions about the Force that likely will never get answers. That’s certainly fine, but it worked better in The Clone Wars than it does in Rebels. At the very least, it worked better in the first couple seasons of Rebels than it works now. We came into season four with a setup that it’s finally time to see the Rebellion mustering. Every now and then we start getting glimpses that we’re going to finally see more of the early Rebel Alliance.

But then we get derailed to go on another trail to Mortis-up the Force again. What does any of this mean? Who knows, but here are some nifty visuals.

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Rebels Review: The Occupation and Flight of the Defender

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The past two episodes of Star Wars Rebels marked a departure from the previous two episodes. First, unlike “Heroes of Mandalore” and “In the Name of the Rebellion,” we saw a return to the half-hour episode format. Second, the Ghost crew returns to Lothal for the first time since last season’s “An Inside Man.” Much has changed on Lothal during the Imperial occupation, and Mon Mothma has finally granted Ezra the mission he craves: to save his homeworld.

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Rebels Review: In the Name of the Rebellion

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In its final season, Star Wars Rebels is clearly not messing around and follows up its double sized premiere with another hour-long episode. This week, the crew of the Ghost encounters Saw Gerrera again and his very not-Mothma-approved rebellious ways. They’re sent on a mission to repurpose a communications satellite that goes sideways very quickly and takes Ezra and Sabine on an adventure they definitely didn’t expect. Continue reading →

Star Wars Rebels: Zero Hour – Liveblog Review

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What happens when three Tosche Station staffers get together virtually to watch the Season 3 finale of Rebels? We do a live (written commentary), of course! Did we like it? Did we throw anything at the screen? Did we finally get another Space Married moment? Hit the break to find out!

THIS IS YOUR FIRST AND ONLY SPOILER WARNING.

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