Episode 114 : Godspeed, Rebels

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It’s so hard to say goodbye to Star Wars Rebels but Blast Points is here to help get you through it all.  Join Jason & Gabe as they look at the show’s past, it’s strengths, the challenges it faced and where they dream Lucasfilm Animation could go next.  From those mysterious voices in-between worlds, the legacy of Ashoka Tano, giant wolves, to our hero AP-5 singing in space, Blast Points toasts four wild seasons of the Ghost Crew adventures.

PLUS :  Star Wars TV stuff, the Last Jedi deleted scene with Phasma whoop hogging it up, going Solo at Denny’s, listener reviews and The Lucas’ lively, action packed speech at Mark Hamill’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony!

So put on those Duran Duran records, head into the unknown regions with Space Whales and celebrate the love with BLAST POINTS!

Rebels Review – “Wolves and a Door” “A World Between Worlds”

STAR WARS REBELS
“Wolves and a Door” “A World Between Worlds”

 

“Through the Force, things you will see. Other places. The future…the past. Old friends long gone.”

Shortly after these episodes aired, there was a lot of online chatter on how THESE STAR WARS REBELS CHANGE EVERYTHING or STAR WARS INTRODUCED SOME THING NEW AND IT WILL NEVER BE THE SAME and possibly maybe even SHOW BASED ON POPULAR SPACE WIZARDS MOVIES JUST DID ANOTHER WEIRD THING.   Did these two episodes get kinda bug out freak out crazy?  Sure.  Is it a radical new thing departure from what we’ve seen in Star Wars before? Especially when just a couple months ago we had a bearded Luke Skywalker meditating and floating over a rock while his projection talked smack to his greasy haired nephew? Not at all.  In my opinion, Star Wars is at its best when it is wacky weird.  Give me Star Wars when it steps outside the Boba Fett is a Badass comfort zone and delves deep into that mystical energy field.  So often the stories filled with heroes, villains, religious and mythic allegories are when it shines the brightest.  Like an angry Lucas once said, “it’s not about spaceships.”  I feel like Rebels show runner and obvious wolf superfan Dave Filoni might agree with that.   He wrote this stuff and watching these two episodes is like being at his house on a Saturday night after he’s had a whole bottle of champagne and he’s talking Star Wars.  It’s a little loopy, a little off the rails but it’s a rockin’ visual representation of what Star Wars has been dancing around for decades.

The whole thing starts out as the Rebels crew decides to find out what’s up with the mysterious jedi temple that the giant maybe Kanan Wolf wanted them to see.  As if that wasn’t already weird enough, they then ride the giant wolves across half of Lothal in some sort of ground hyperspace portal.  Once they get there they see that the Empire has gone all Raiders of the Lost Ark on the temple as they dig around it in a quest to use its power for evil reasons.

Here we are introduced to a creepy old Sith devotee named Minister Hyden who is voiced by the great Malcolm McDowell.  This little guy with a cool hat is obsessed with discovering the secrets of the temple so his master, Emperor Palpatine can better rule the galaxy.  As a sadistic and oddly sympathetic tool of a Sith Lord, Hyden is a more interesting bad guy in his 15 minutes of screen time then Thrawn has been for multiple seasons.

Once there and with a lot of help from Sabine, Ezra figures out how to get in the temple and then the show really kicks into high gear.  As he walks around the star filled space bridges, we hear dialog that spans everything from Force Awakens to A New Hope.  It’s a nice eerie touch as Ezra quickly realizes this Force place is an area beyond time and space made up of portals where you can enter and view other of major moments of history.

Ezra goes to a portal where he sees Ashoka’s battle with Lord Vader and at the last second, he explains what happened to Tano during the fight as he quickly pulls her out of there.  Ezra then does Ezra by acting clueless and he whining a lot about how he can stop people from dying.  It’s a little distracting as Ezra seemingly still doesn’t have a clue on not only how to be a Jedi but also how to function as a person. Finally, the former Padawan learner becomes the teacher as Ashoka reminds Ezra that he has to chill out and that he can not change the past and he must learn to let go of his former master.

This is where people seemed to freak out thinking time travel is now a thing in Star Wars.  It’s not.  It’s not suddenly Back to the Future or something and no Rey isn’t going back in time in Episode 9.  What Ezra enters is a physical version of an area of the Force.  He sees events from HIS past.  He’s not seeing Anakin and Obi-Wan fight on Mustafar or the death of Qui-Gon Jinn, it’s only what he knows.

This kind of mystical thing is an extension of what Rey experienced when she touched the Skywalker saber and traveled “through time”, when Luke saw himself in Vader’s mask in the cave or even Rey’s reflection cave in Last Jedi.  What is all that?  It doesn’t have a name or a clear cut answer because it shouldn’t.  The Force should remain weird and mystical and by introducing a not really new element to it all, just underlines that we, like even the masters in the films and shows, can’t categorize the Force and nobody will ever be able to fully understand it.  That frustrates some who want the Force to be as simple as Superman’s powers but i am sorry, that’s just not how the Force works.  People like Dave Filoni are the esteemed professors at Lucas college and this episode is like the introductory course in Keeping Star Wars Weird.  This Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars animation doing what it does best and these episodes come highly recommended.

Final grade : A 

Rebels Review – ”Jedi Night” ”Dume”

STAR WARS REBELS
“Jedi Night” “Dume”

 

WARNING : IT WOULD BE REALLY WEIRD IF YOU READ THIS BEFORE WATCHING THESE EPISODES OF STAR WARS REBELS … BUT DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THEM YET.   SPOILERS LAY AHEAD…..

Let’s just put it right out in the open.  These two episodes of Star Wars Rebels are some of the best stuff the show has ever done.  No, no young Master Codebreaker is not in it.  And no, it doesn’t feature a two hour tribute to Admiral Raddus’ face. It does however somehow manage to take almost all the awkward stuff that has plagued season four so far and perform a Jedi mind trick on us and made it all suddenly kinda awesome.  I’m still not sure who the bootleg Anakin kid is that’s hanging out on Lothal is or why I should care about Clancy Brown’s space Santa character but dammit who cares right now.   This is some mighty fine Star Wars action and I wanna talk about it.

The action starts as everyone is getting ready to go rescue Hera.  Kanan tells Ezra he should lead this mission and Sabine and Zeb put together some hang gliders so they can sneak into the Imperial base.  Kanan decides to go full Legend of Billie Jean at this moment and use a knife to cut his hair.  After debuting his new punk samurai new wave look, they head out to Governor Irina “Pryce” Spalko’s torture pad where she’s trying to get Hera to tell her where that Rebel hidden base is. After rescuing her, Spalko Pryce has the bright idea of stopping them by blowing up the fuel that’s pretty much bankrolling Thawn’s crazy TIE Fighter project.  The whole thing goes boom and Kanan has one final act of true Jedi selflessness as he saves his friends from the fiery explosion but not himself.

Kanan’s death is definitely the major moment of these two episodes and it is done absolutely perfectly.  We all knew the dude was probably doomed from day one but his actions during this whole episode justify him basically meditating through the rest of the season. Just like us, the guy knew this moment was coming and he would finally prove, mostly to himself that he was a Jedi Knight.   It’s an instant classic moment for Star Wars animation with breathtaking visuals and a score by Kevin Kiner that is a reminder that he’s a strong candidate to eventually score some Star Wars cinema.

That moment ripples through the next episode as everyone does their best to move on in whatever way they can.  Sabine and Zeb go off to try and stick one to the Empire, Hera and Chopper mourn and Ezra gets lost (again) and talks to a giant wolf who may or may not be the spirit of Kanan.  Eventually the huge wolf tells Ezra that he’s gotta go back to the Jedi Temple on Lothal and with that promise of some wacky Force stuff to come, we are left hanging until next week.

Is the reason this episode is able to soar when so many before have floundered simply because it actually handles actual consequences and real growth for the characters?  Something this show has gravely struggled with in the past?  As DJ would say, “maybe..?”  However, even before Kanan’s massive final moment, we are given a simple sense of fun and some easy breezy Star Wars magic that has eluded the show so many times before.  Even the effortless scene of the rebels flying around on homemade gliders made this sometimes grumpy Rebels viewer smile.

This is Star Wars Rebels firing at maximum firepower, finally making giant talking wolves interesting, giving hope for actually Ezra doing something and hopefully, HOPEFULLY slapping my wrist for ever doubting Dave Filoni. Bravo Rebels and I can’t wait to see where the next few episodes go.

Final grade :A

 

Episode 107 : Le Darth Vader VCR Game : A Star Wars Art Film

This week Jason and Gabe go all the way with the insane 1996 Star Wars VCR board game, Star Wars: The Interactive Video Board Game : Assault on the Death Star!   A VHS only Star Wars art film where a creepy Vader talks to himself, wanders hallways and says the word “pupil” a lot.  Like all Star Wars weirdness, this game has a wild backstory and features the final, expressive performance of David “The Real Darth Vader” Prowse as The Dark Lord of the Sith.  It’s a bizarre Star Wars experience and Blast Points is here to help you through it!   Plus there’s Solo stuff, singing Hutts, George Lucas late night phone calls, Rebels trailer talk and much more!  So grab your pupil, look for a snake in the stars and celebrate the love with BLAST POINTS!

Rebels Review – ”Rebel Assault”

STAR WARS REBELS
”Rebel Assault”

 

 

A few things were made abundantly clear while watching Rebel Assault :

1.  don’t mess with Hera.

2.  X-Wing have been and will forever be cool

3.   I don’t think that Force Wolf is saying “Dume” anymore.  It might actually now be saying “doom” as in Kanan is totally doomed in this thing.

Rebel Assault starts out with some non-stop super  Star Wars action and wastes no time by giving the audience exactly what they want.  Christmas comes early as we are given a fairly awesome X-Wing battle led by the fearless butt kicking space mom Hera. Speaking of Hera and Christmas, where’s a Hera Forces of Destiny figure/doll?!?!? Hasbro you’re missing out with that one. Anyways, while it’s hard to top the still very fresh and dizzying space battles seen in last year’s Rogue One, this opening does its darndest to pump up the show an early shot of adrenaline.   Even the inclusion of former space waffle eating pirate kid now hotshot almost bootleg Wedge Rebel Pilot Mart Mattin didn’t ruin the party!

Thrawn of course is there watching the whole thing almost and letting yet another victory slip from his fingers.  On the ground while all this is happening,  Ezra, Kanan and crew are on exciting Lothal putting bombs on gun turrets and blowing stuff up real good.  

Pretty soon the Rebel fleet gets beat up and Hera crashes in what obviously is the one and only neighborhood in Lothal where everything happens.  She’s captured by Irina “Governor Pryce” Spalko who may think that Hera has the illusive crystal skull of Akator. Once Kanan senses that Hera is in trouble, he turns his speeder bike around to save her and is stopped by that giant Force Wolf.  Is it a warning? A sign that this isn’t going to end well for Kanan?  Is the Wolf hungry and just wants a biscuit?  Is it the world’s biggest She’s All That fan and wants to know what Rachael Leigh Cook is REALLY like? Maybe all of the above but we will have to wait until January to find out as this is the big mid season finale for Rebels.

While Rebel Assault is definitely an improvement on what’s come before and is possibly the best episode of season four so far, the lackluster quality of the season has made it almost difficult to care about what’s going on here.  Yeah it’s pretty clear that Kanan’s days are numbered and a giant sacrifice for Hera and the crew may be happening soon, but this kind of business is how the season should have started.  We’re getting to the real meat and potatoes of season four here and we’ve only got a handful of episodes left to tie this whole thing up.

This is a season that has felt off from the first episode and has relied on nostalgia both new and old to carry episodes.  The X-Wing sequence could have fallen into that “Hey look everyone, X-WINGS!!!” category but it totally works in this one.  The building relationship between Kanan and Hera feels like it’s going somewhere and the selfless decision Kanan makes here will sure lay the groundwork for the series’ impending conclusion.  This may yet be when Rebels season four got it’s groove back.  A few more episodes like this and I’ll forgive the Bossks with electric whips and Ezra smiling as a Bossk gets burned alive.  Maybe.

 

Final grade : B+

Rebels Review – ”Kindred” ”Crawler Commanders”

STAR WARS REBELS
”Kindred”
”Crawler Commanders”

 

First the bad news :  we are still on Lothal and it is still the most boring planet in all of Star Wars.  Not much actually happens in these episodes and Crawler Commanders almost violently put me to sleep about 45 times.  If you’re still reading and you are curious about the good news, Kindred isn’t that bad.  It hints at some interesting stuff that could be coming and there’s just something dang intriguing about those giant Force Wolves.  So in our last back to back, let’s hurry up and get this show over with, two episodes at a time style, we get a very mixed Rebels bag.  There’s decent stuff in especially the first one but man oh man, this show is riding a speeder bike straight to it’s quickly approaching end.

Things get started with Hera and Kanan spending some time together having deep thoughts on what we’re all wondering, just why they are still on Lothal.  Kanan wonders if there’s a deeper purpose that keeps bringing them back there and I honestly hope that’s the case.  Cut to that dastardly villain who can’t get anything done, Thrawn as he unleashes his gorilla mixed with a pencil eraser assassin thing named Ruhk on the Rebels.  Ruhk jumps out of his ship smelling for Zeb, rides a speeder bike, fights Ezra and then he’s pretty much out of the episode.  Maybe and hopefully he’ll turn up again in another episode but for now he was a total waste of time.

Ezra and crew hide out in the cave mountains and the Force Wolves show up and naturally they ask for Kanan.  Next thing you know Ezra’s eyes get crazy and faster then you can say Carlos Castaneda in the desert, they’re on the other side of the planet.  Just like last season’s Bendu, I like the idea of creatures that thrive of the living and cosmic Force but aren’t necessarily Force users.  I’m hoping and sensing that these wolves will actually lead to something at may help bring a satisfying conclusion to some of our main characters.  Or maybe they will talk more and remind Kanan and Ezra that the greatest power in the universe is the strength of family.  We’ll find out!

After that, there’s some stuff about a giant mining crawler, some Trandoshans with electric whips and Ezra grinning when a Seth Green voiced lizard man accidentally falls to his death.   It’s weird and it definitely is not one of Rebels’ best episodes.

The good thing going on with Kindred there’s moments that feel like this thing is going somewhere.  It has a nice forward momentum to it that sometimes Rebels episodes severely lack. Watching it though I can’t help feeling like this first half of season four has been phoning it in.  I think back to episodes like Maul’s flirting with the Ezra and the dark side in Twilight of the Apprentice, the Bendu’s lesson for Ezra and Kanan to learn that they needed each other last season and it makes we wonder what’s going on this season.  We’ve got a handful of episodes left and we are getting Bossk dudes with electric whips.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Bossk with an electric whip and the promise of X-Wings next week but that leads to my weekly gripe that’s still valid, what about the characters?  And not the characters from Star Wars movies or Clone Wars, what about the Rebels characters?  It’s time for this show to address the Bor Gullet in the room and start to lay the foundation that give these Rebels their final act.  Save the Bossks with whips for the next show.   Or my dreams.

 

FINAL GRADE: 
Kindred : B
Crawler Commanders: D

Rebels Review – The Occupation and Flight of the Defender

STAR WARS REBELS
“The Occupation”
“Flight of the Defender”

 

Does anyone really, REALLY care about Lothal?  It’s been the planet on Rebels that they never seem to leave or are constantly coming back to.   It has been interesting to see how with each visit it becomes more and more under Imperial control, but has anyone anywhere proclaimed how excited they were for the next episode of Rebels where they go to Lothal and wear funny hats to blend in? Anyone? …  Anyone?

This week finds two Lothal centered episodes that happily don’t rely on plot lines connected to previous Star Wars movies or shows but still features its own unique set of issues.  The action begins with Ezra straight up throwing a fit that he has to go back to Lothal and check up on everyone’s favorite Star Wars background character Old Jho. Remember him?  No? Well that’s okay as things don’t go too hot when they arrive as the planet.  Lothal has seen better days as it looks like it’s been burned down and the Empire is literally hanging out everywhere.   Ezra goes to a bar, runs into some goofball from the Imperial Academy there and that’s pretty much all that happens in that first pretty much lackluster yawn of an episode.

Things pick up a little in the second one as Sabine and Ezra (who seem to get all the missions now) head out to steal some info on a new super advanced TIE Defender. Everything seems fine until Thrawn shows up and once again let’s the Rebels escape right in front of him as it’s still all part of his master plan or something.

Thrawn does manage to disable the prototype TIE enough so that it crashes and Ezra and Sabine have a trippy Lewis Carrol meets Jim Morrison in the desert moment with a white Loth Cat and giant mystical wolf who may or may not be connected to the Force somehow.

For the most part these episodes seemed to be going through the regular Star Wars Rebels brats and motions and repeating the same kind of stories and action we’ve been seeing for the past few seasons.  However, I’m intrigued by the idea of the giant Force Wolf as it reminds me of Bendu-esque stuff when the show branches out from just doing Star Wars and pushes the ideas of the saga and The Force forward a little.

Having two Jedi in the Rebel Alliance before Luke Skywalker blows up the Death Star has always been Rebels’ biggest “what’s up with that” obstacle and when they stretch out the interpretations of Force Users to include giant wolves and a huge rock moose, they’ve got our attention.   As often as Rebels has been wildly frustrating for me at times, it’s also been game changing awesome.  These giant Force Wolves, while feeling a little shoehorned into an episode about stealing a TIE Defender, is a good reminder that the show continues to at least explore the rich mysticism of The Force and reminds me that I can’t wait to see how this whole thing wraps up.

FINAL GRADE: 
The Occupation : C
Flight of the Defender: B+ 

 

Episode 97 : Famous Monsters of Star Wars

Just in time for Halloween, Jason and Gabe are celebrating all things MONSTERS in Star Wars!  Join them as they countdown their top 13 monsters from the whole saga! Who did they pick from the Ewok movies, the read along books and how many are from the beautiful three way Attack of the Clones monster tag team?!  Listen and find out!!

PLUS:  Great moments in Halloween Star Wars History (with drunk Ewoks), Is there a Halloween holiday in the Star Wars universe, Last Jedi stuff,  rumors on possible Sammy Hagar & Mick Dundee cameos & more!!

So put on your Snoke mask, ride the Rubber Chicken and celebrate the love with Blast Points!

Rebels Review –  “In The Name Of The Rebellion Parts 1 & 2”

STAR WARS REBELS
“In The Name Of The Rebellion Parts 1 & 2”

 

Oh Rebels, why are you making it so difficult for me to love you every week.  If this keeps up, I think we will need to go to couples therapy to sort out my feelings on this show.  We are four episodes into this final season and you’ve already acquired a long list of fresh and unsqueezed raw Star Wars awesomeness, but you’ve used that in all the episodes as a crutch for the rest of the show to stand on.  Last week we had a flawed but suitable and possible conclusion to the epic Mandalore saga which had Mandos shooting rocket jetpacks at TIEs.  This week we return with basically a prequel to Rogue One featuring lots of Saw Gerrera, Mon Mothma, U-Wings & even some laughs with the world’s sweetheart, Two Tubes!  While there’s no denying the coolness of the simple fact that we are are getting animated versions of all these beautiful things, they constantly upstage and overshadow the characters this show is supposed to be about.   This season more than ever feels like the Rebel Alliance aspect of Rebels is in red and underlined, but with only a handful of episodes left and some very big questions about what happens to who that need to be answered, I just wonder if this is the time or place for the Saw Gerrera Hour.  Which physically hurts me to write that as i really did love it so much.  Maybe just give Saw his own show?  The New Adventures of Saw Gerrera?  With his sidekick Two Tubes!

Anyways, the basics of this two parter finds the Ghost crew meeting up with Hera and Zeb at the new secret base on Yavin IV.  There we quickly are greeted by the new Rebel, Hot Kallus and then it’s straight into the planning room with Mon Mothma and a sweet hologram of Bail Organa.  Clearly, this is all Star Wars gold so far.  There’s some stuff about a mission to head to giant Imperial Radar Dish and Sabine, Ezra and Chopper volunteer to go all 2009 Star Trek and dive down to the dish.  Naturally, things don’t go quite as planned and they are picked up by Saw & Two-Tubes who somehow are flying around in a presumably stolen Rebel U-Wing.

Let me back up here and talk about a scene with Saw that happens a little before the radar dish mission.  It’s nighttime at Yavin and mysterious droid suddenly begins projecting a GIANT hologram of Saw’s head basically telling all the Rebels on Yavin that they are a bunch of babies and that the only true way to fight the Empire is to fight dirty. Out walks Mon Mothma and the two of them have a brief but juicy debate over the morals of war.   Written by Rogue One co-writer Gary Whitta, this is an amazing moment that makes you look at both Saw and Mothma’s roles in Rogue One in a whole new light.

The thing that bums me out with scenes like that is thinking about how a moment that strong and with that much Star Wars heaviness is the kind of thing Dave Filoni and crew seem to have such a hard time harnessing into our main Rebels characters.  Major things happen to these people, but feel quickly passed by in sometimes the very next episode.  Week after week, the show’s best moments are often left for characters that have been borrowed from Star Wars films, books or Clone Wars.

As the episodes go on, Saw’s quest to discover the secrets of the Empire deepens as he finds a gigantic Kyber Crystal (perhaps the same one last seen in the unfinished Utapau arc of Clone Wars) and sees the awesome power of the Crystal when it is used as weapon.  Ezra, Sabine and Chopper make it back home and once again probably learn that family is the greatest power there is or something.

So is this a good episode and should you as a Star Wars fan reading a review of a Star Wars cartoon on a website for a Star Wars podcast watch this episode?  Definitely yes to all those questions.  Do I have hope that Rebels will start to address it’s own characters and tell it’s own stories now that we’ve got Mandalore and Rogue One stuff out of the way?  A little bit.  But then as we all know, rebellions are built on hope…

Final Grade : B 

Episode 96 – What’s Up Mandalore?

This week it’s all about Mandalore as Jason and Gabe dive into everything from Sabine, Satine & brave nephew Korkie! From the history of the super commandos in Star Wars to the season four premier of Star Wars Rebels, Blast Points is looking at all of it!!
PLUS! There’s reactions to the “Solo : A Star Wars Story title, Last Jedi talk, Rebels reactions and more!!
So strap on jetpack, fly into a room of Xizors and celebrate the love with BLAST POINTS!