Full Series Rebels 1.12 - Vision of Hope - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

I suspected Trayvis of being an Imperial agent (ISB?) since his little "leak" in "Rise of the Old Masters". The revelation didn't hurt the episode in any way though, and it's good to see that the founders of the Ghost crew were suspicious of him before meeting him.

And seeing how he disposed of that Imperial R4, why do I suspect that Chopper is actually an assassin droid rebuilt as an astromech?

 

I've often said that Chopper is HK-47 in an astromech's body, but maybe Chopper actually literally is HK-47 in an astromech's body!

 

I wonder if Ezra's parents are really gone. They could be alive but being tortured or held captive. I think Ezra might have to go through what Anakin had to go through in Attack of the clones where he watched his mother die.

 

Great, I tuned in just in time to see Hera show that she was right about the traitor guy (shocker), take him down, explain how she knew it, and talk about hope..

Meh.

 

Villains are imbeciles.

Heroes are invincible.

I need more than this even if it's a kids show.

 

Have you seen Call To Action yet? It may be a step in the right direction for you.

 

I was the same, that was a major trap he led them into. I wish they'd discussed that a little afterwards, but I guess it's irrelevant now!

Here's my recap of this episode:

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/ch...ode-10-recap-vision-hope-blog-entry-1.2100461

 

You get it next episode.

 

Star Wars: Rebels is back with a solid episode that turns one major mystery on its head while leaving several heads tantalizingly open. Senator Trayvis has been a mystery up until this episode, with the aura about him remaining enshrouded in darkness. It was apt that the show did so, considering that any other persona for a senator in exile would be ridiculous. From the moment he mentioned not being used to running a lot, the red flags went up and thus, while his eventual betrayal of the group lacked a lot of surprise, it delivered on the shock levels. Hera continues to impress as a character, drawing herself up to be one of the most impressive female characters on television, period. She is well ahead of the pack, picking up on the subtle clues Trayvis leaves in the conversation that hint towards his true allegiance along with the audience. It’s a smart writing choice that not only creates an immediate connection between the characters and the audience but it also keeps the ingenuity that such a group would need to survive intact.

The opening lightsaber sequence was a bit overplayed, hitting similar beats to the ones we’ve already seen in abundance. I’m glad we’re getting a chronological, linear story with Kanan and Ezra, but if it simply goes over little beats again and again, the repetitiveness can become claustrophobic. The repetitiveness is broken apart slightly by Ezra’s visions, which were a little too on-the-nose for my taste. Thankfully a neat little speeder bike chase sequence breaks that awkward opening up and there’s nothing better to get the blood pumping than a few stormtroopers crashing into things. Nevertheless, I can’t help but wonder that if Ezra wants to be a little more inconspicuous, he should probably ditch the helmet that looks like it’s been through a wild paint job. Helmet cues aside, Ezra bumps into his former cadet comrade Zare in the dark alleyways of Lothal. Zare at that moment covers for him, but there’s a little too much focus on that sequence for it not to have some significance down the road. Chekhov’s gun has become a basic rule of storytelling and add onto that the reality of Ezra and Zare being anagrams of one another, it seems inevitable that Rebels is turning the two of them into potential adversaries with tragic consequences. Or maybe I’m just reading too much into it.

The episode’s greatest weakness ironically circles its smartest choice. While keeping Hera ahead of the game is a great meta framework and makes Hera even more of a badass than she already was, the unfortunate tendency of the episode in regards to Trayvis himself is fiercely irritating. The bits of dialogue provided to him made it absurdly obvious that he was up to something and I wish the script had a higher opinion of its audience’s intellect to not beam the conclusion into the sky like the Bat signal. As it stands, it isn’t just the script that telegraphs the inevitable moment when Trayvis literally pulls the gun on the Ghost crew. The framing of the camera by director Steven G. Lee is a bit more than suggestive and slowly the suspense ebbs away until a mere shadow of it remains. Subtlety perhaps has never been the strongest suit for Star Wars, but I remains steadfast in my opinion that the greatest scenes in the entire saga are the quite ones that speak volumes without uttering a single world. Rebels, much like Ezra in that sense, has grown tremendously from its opening and I hope it takes this lesson in stride. Trust your audience.

Great Moments Not Mentioned Above:

+Maketh and Kallus believing that the Inquisitor too much focus on the Jedi
+“…not walking into it for once.”
+Chopper throws astromech down
+“Wait, you know what I smell like?”
+Imperial droid design
+“Think of something clever to say later.”
+“We’re not going anywhere.”
+“We have hope.”

Great​

8/10​

 

This is probably going to be a somewhat abbreviated review. I've got a lot of things on my mind this week and next, and not a whole lot of room left in my poor brain for expounding.

But I will say what we have here was very enjoyable episode for me. The senator being a traitor seemed predictable, but I rather enjoyed the throwback to Die Hard where Hera gives him her uncharged gun as a test, and it played out much as it did in Die Hard, though I did rather enjoy Hera knocking him out. As anakinfansince1983 said, though, he really deserved the Lando treatment as well.

One thing that caught my attention in this episode was a little bit of insight into the motivations of the various characters. They all do seem to be united in a common goal...that is hurting the empire, but this episode made a little more clear to me why they want to hurt the empire. I picked up on it when Hera and Ezra seemed to be the only two excited about the senator's next broadcast.

Zeb, for his part, seems motivated mostly by revenge for what the Empire did to his people, and Sabine probably has similar motivations herself. Kanan...well, what drives Kanan is harder to pick out. At first, he just wanted to tag along with Hera because he was physically attracted to her. In fact he was pretty clear about it at first. he wanted to be her crew. Not a revolutionary...crew. Though it's pretty clear to me that's changed into something deeper and more meaningful in the intervening years. Having taken on a Padawan has given him something specific to fight for as he finds his way back to the way of the Jedi.

Hera, though, is the idealist. The revolutionary. Even back in A New Dawn, her motivation was bringing about political change even if she had to push for it a fraction of an inch at a time, and I think some of that rubbed off on Ezra who's own parents were political idealists. As Hera said, they have hope. So they're drawn to other people who seemingly fight against the same empire they're fighting against. That's what I saw in their shared excitement at the transmission, and their disappointment at having been betrayed by someone they thought was a fellow revolutionary.

Five people with different motivations, but united in a common goal. I think that's one of the reasons they're so interesting to me to watch.

All in all, a good episode.

 

Plug chopper into the Ghost, he goes on about meatballs over intercom. Turns out they picked up his data chip from and old droid in a Tatooine Junkyard named HK-47.

Edit: Auto correct put meatballs.... I'm not changing it.

 

I'm still holding together the idea that Fulcrum is a group.

 

as far as the travis revelation, most of us knew but kids probably wouldn't. so it would really work on that level.

 

You know, it doesn't really make sense for the Empire to be using Trayvis the way they were. Sure, they want to draw out rebel groups and eliminate them, but for Trayvis to be making those defiant speeches in the first place he's likely much more likely to be stirring people up to rebel in the first place, as the Empire is already widely disliked.

 

I completely agree. I went back to watch his previous transmissions, and he was specifically telling people to not believe what the Empire was telling them and to question authority. That in and of itself may have been enough of a "vision of hope" to encourage people throughout the galaxy to start/join a rebellion. But hey, I guess that's the entire premise of The Force Unleashed, so we've seen something like that before.

Maybe in the future the Trayvis character will get a bit more nuance. Maybe he started out along with Ezra's parents supporting speaking against the Empire, but he made a deal with them at some point that kept him alive (unlike Ezra's parents). So the Empire made him continue doing broadcasts (since he had already earned the trust of many Rebel groups) but as a double agent, pushing their agenda to draw rebels into traps.

 

I have a fever and the only prescription is more Lando!

 

The Emperor's plan all the way back in Return of the Jedi was pretty ridiculous.

Why didn't he just wait until the Death Star II was completed, why the elaborate plan when he could have had an invincible super weapon instead?

 

Arrogance.

 

Impatience.

 

His overconfidence was his weakness?

 

Which is why Ezra's message to the people is baffling to me. It is basically a bunch of positive thinking noise like the messages Trayvis gave. So what exactly is it supposed to accomplish? It seems as if the rebels really don't have anything worthwhile to say.

 

I saw Ezra's message as him taking the place of Trayvis - all the possible rebels throughout may have looked up to Trayvis for hope. Ended up being false hope, but the messages still gave them hope that someone was out there willing to speak out against the empire. With Trayvis now outed as an imperial, Ezra is taking his place as a voice of hope right when some may have lost that hope.

I agree though - in the future if he is able to broadcast messages he will need to have some specific plans in place, maybe coded messages starting to organize something so that hope can be put into action.

 

Impatience is the last thing Palpatine should do wrong.

ROTJ just had a thing for elaborate and silly plans, see Luke's plan to escape Jabba which also doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

Palps wanted it to look like he had absolute power, so he probably wanted to work on the DS2 as soon as possible.