Full Series Rebels 3.06 - The Last Battle - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

As someone who loved the CIS vs Empire and Clones vs Empire levels in Star Wars Battlefront 2, I was looking forward to this episode. But ultimately it was a bit too silly for me in writing and execution.. The whole war game seemed pointless. Kalani caught them with the ray shields. He won. Letting them go to fight is dumb and undercuts his cold, tactical nature. The whole episode seemed very video gamey. Because of the way the mission was set up, it seemed very artificial and low stakes. People easily shrugged off blaster bolts. Kanan's blindness is now purely aesthetic. They went through overly convoluted plots like having the Jedi redirect blaster bolts that are shot at them because battle droids can't aim. And I really don't see how a few derelict droids fighting a single clone and two "jedi" could bring closure to the clone war, where it was hundreds of units vs other hundreds of units. A more interesting concept I think would be to have the droids be completely unaware of how much time has passed and still think the Clone Wars is going on, firing on intruders and shooting down their transport. That's Act 1. Act 2 is them getting captured. Then Ezra could reveal that the Empire is the Republic and then they would team up, much to Rex's chagrin. Then Act 3 is focused on Empire vs CIS and Rex seeing himself in the droids.

But I really liked the droids' dialogue.

 

Is this your lowest grade yet? But I like the honesty.

 

Just wondering, why do we have to mask our comments in spoiler tags if the thread is marked spoilers allowed? If you haven't seen the episode, you shouldn't come into a discussion thread about it, especially one marked spoilers allowed.

 

We already had a discussion on this a couple of pages ago.

 

Aaaaaah, an episode of pointless droid banter. Love it. The argument that two Jedi bouncing battle droid laser blasts of their sabers was more accurate than the droids just shooting directly at the bombs was highly contrived to get them to work together --- really? they wouldn't have just built droids with better aim a long time ago, though it would certainly explain why Jedi could cut through so many of them without getting hit --- but I'm glad they got the shuttle in then end.

 

Kanan's blindness does seem to be a non-factor in recent episodes. Ever since Hera's Heroes Kanan seems to behave as if he can still see. Did the producers forget that he's really blind?

 

He is daredevil at this point essentially.

Honestly droids being crap at shooting was probably intentionally programmed and not design flaw. But enough numbers of them and they will hit some targets eventually that is just stats.

 

10/10 (Both Standard and Rebels grades).

This episode was immensely satisfying, and even gave me chills (in a good way). One, seeing the conclusion of the clone perspective that was truly enhanced and made amazing in TCW was a high watermark for the New EU. Old demons for Rex, a direct commentary about how they were both made to lose, allowing it to focus on the REAL threat, the Empire. The way the Stormtroopers dismissively talked about the droids was worth a chuckle too. This episode was really a celebration of the previous show, as well as a thematic touch on what the Rebellion is all about, and it avoided feeling fan-ficcy while at the same time covering moments and plot that one usually only gets in a fanfic treatment... the team-up of droids and clone, plus the Rebels, to fight the Empire.

And as solid as the rest of the season has been thus far, this is the most fun I've had with it!

"Who's Roger?" Heh.

 

I believe you mean "Path of the Jedi" from the first season? As I recall, people were all over the board on that episode reception wise.

As for this episode, Rex has flashbacks to the Clone Wars. Kanan supports Rex in facing this moment for him to come to terms with his personal demons so his war can come to an end. Kolani (did I spell that right?) and Rex bickering before fighting the Empire was pretty good. I like the allusion to the Empire and by extension the Emperor manipulating the war so that no one won. Didn't really car for the blending of themes for the outgoing title card shot, but the credits were filled with nostalgia.

 

Great episode.

The only thing I thought was weird was when Ezra posed the question "who really won the Clone Wars?" and everyone looked like they had to think about it, and Ezra was then surprised when Zeb said "the Empire".

At first, I thought Ezra was just trying to make a point, to remind everyone, to say "look, us and the droids, we're not really enemies, it was the Empire".

But no, the suggestion really was that they worked out that it was the Empire on the spot in that scene. Which strikes me as quite odd. Surely by this point, Rex is fully aware that the Empire won. He didn't need Ezra and Zeb to work it out for him.

It felt like the writer was trying to be really overt about it, to really hammer home the point for the younger audience.

Well perhaps in the series finale, Ezra, Kanan and Ahsoka will come face to face with the Emperor and when they finally learn it was him who was behind it, he kills them all!

 

Ahsoka or Maul should die in this way:

 

It's quite similar to how Rahm Kota was portrayed in the old Force Unleashed. After he was blinded, he went into a spiral of despair, similar to Kanan's meditation in the desert.

Eventually his confidence was restored, and he was basically back to normal at the end of the game, and in TFU 2, where his blindness is completely ignored.

I think it all links back to the scene in ANH where Luke deflects the blaster bolts while blindfolded. "Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them!"

A jedi can use the force to feel what's around them.

 

Jedi have been able to function without their eyes since the first Star Wars film.
What I found surprising was the Kanan had learn how to do something that I'd taken to be part of basic Jedi training.

 

"The Last Battle" is the best episode of the entire series!

First, kudos on the writer of the episode - Brent Friedman - for doing such a phenominal job with this episode. I loved his work in the D-Squad episodes and the Bad Batch story reels. I mean, this is the man who managed to put two of my most favorite villain in the same shot - Admiral Trench and Wat Tambor. He knows how to write Separatists.

ONDERON IS THE KEY!!! ONDERON IS THE KEY!!!

I just wanted to get that out of the way first.
I have so much praise to give to this episode that I will try to keep it as short as possible.

This might the best self-contained story from the entire show. IT IS NOT FILLER! Yeah, it does not deal with the Maul or Thrawn, but it does so much more than just another Jedi-centric episode.
"The Last Battle" manages to develop character relationships like the one between Kanan and Rex. It made Ezra Bridger not annoying for once and it gave him a very nice role to play in the overall story. Thanks to Ezra and this episode, fans of "The Clone Wars" TV series finally got closure as did Captain Rex. In a way, this story was very meta for me. Yeah, we will never see a lot of the stories that did not make it to the small screen before "The Clone Wars" got cancelled. TIKKES!!! But we got some form of resolation after all these years. I am sure not many will feel like this, but it sure made me happy. "The Clone Wars" just ended and like Captain Rex, I had this hole inside me that for years constantly made me treat the current reign of Disney with a considerable portion of cynicism. Insert Unkar Plutt joke here! But little by little, Disney and Lucasfilm slowly sneaked in one by one different elements from "The Clone Wars" and the Prequel Trilogy in general. Then "Rebels" happened. To this day "Rebels" has given fans countless nods, references and even characters from "The Clone Wars". The more PT and TCW appeared in canon and in "Rebels", the less angry I got about the whole cancellation of "The Clone Wars". "The Last Battle" finally ended several years of cynicism and anger that were stuck with me if I wanted it or not. I know we will never see all the stories and Tikkes that were not released, but the events of the latest episode of "Rebels" is the best we will get in terms of ending the previous series. It took years, but it is over. The Clone War is over!

In terms of visuals, the show has never looked better. It really feels like the show can do anything now - produce multiple new models, build massive sets and have better lighting and shadows.

The music in this episode was phenominal! Yeah, I am a little biased and influenced by nostalgia a little. But hearing the music from the battle of Christophsis, I was so pumped and it felt like I was watching "The Clone Wars" again. So many feels. The way the music made me feel really show the quality of Kevin Kiner's work. Back in the day, I took it for granted. But today, "The Clone Wars" theme gets me more pumped and full of excitement than anything from the seven movies.

The humor was great too. I have never laughed as much during a "Rebels" episode. I missed the B1 battle droids and their humor. Yeah, stormies are ok, but battle droids is where it's at in terms of henchman humor. Also, there is this thing about B1s that always cracked me up. I love how they point out their flaws and most of the times their jokes get sort of meta by saying things that we as viewers have noticed. Speaking of pointing out things, I loved Kalani's analysis of the different situations and kinda poking fun at some tropes in "The Clone Wars" and the "Star Wars" franchise as a whole. That is how I saw it.

Speaking of Kalani, I loved what this episode did with him and that the Lucasfilm Animation crew decided to go with him as a representative of the Separatist Alliance. Unlike some fans online, I think it was absolute genius that he was in this episode. Some have said that maybe an organic commander would have been better. Personally, I would have laughed if the bones of Whorm Loathsom were in the command center behind Kalani. The thing is that an organic CIS commander would have been made the story too predictable. You can reason with a living being, but not with heartless droid. Here is where Onderon comes in. That arc showed us that Kalani is a killing machine and has mercy towards his enemies or those who fail the CIS. That piece of backstory really made the episode all the more exciting. I did not know what to expect from the droid. I really thoughts two outcomes for Kalani: that he was going to betray the rebels or that he was going to sacrifice himself because of his programming saying it would be the most logical action. I also did not expect the fate of Kalani. I mean, if we go back to "The Clone Wars" then we will see that the Lucasfilm team has been always kinda cruel towards super tactical droids and CIS officers in general. So the way the episode ended made really, really, REALLY happy.

Speaking of the ending...


I almost cried when I saw this and heard "The Clone Wars" end credits music. Just wow...


Thank you, Lucasfilm Animation, for giving us this episode! SEPARATISTS FOREVER!!!

 

I'm not sure anymore about rating this episode 10/10 it was very good at all but I think more like 9/10 now, because I'm quite upset about 3 things in this episode:

- Rex surviving multiple hits with literally no harm. I don't mind him surviving that much but he could like limp for some time, tell the crew to go ahead because he needs to recover (or Kanan could tell him to stay till he's ok).

- Kanan for the second episode in row completely ignoring his blindness. People might say that with force you can see and all that but I don't buy it. He can have his other senses maxed up and I don't mind him reflecting everything, even maybe fighting with and being able to walk and follow the crew, but for the force sake not all with monkey agility, no hesitation while doing anything (he had hesitated with his eyes still working) and his head pretty much watching the enemy like the blinding never happened. Untill he will start using echolocation like bat yelling to check his surrounding (or Toph ground awareness), I'm refusing to accept him doing all that stuff with literally no problem. There is difference between feeling things in the force and using your hearing and other senses to detect the enemy and even fight like that but how is he able to feel in the force the droids, or obstacles like walls and other stuff. Does rusting shuttle have some echo in the force to make him see it? Nah, I doubt it.

- I can accept the fact that droids who were produced on this scale like CIS might have cheapest parts (what is equivalent of "chinese" quality in Star Wars?) and their aiming might be indeed terrible + they are malfunctioning. But jedi deflecting their blasters being more accurate than them? Why simply don't let Rex shoot directly at it?

Many things worked out great in the episode, but attention to details wasn't that great. Rex plot shield is almost as great as Maul.

 

Its not really plot armor since he does not appear in anything after rebels.

 

Great post, so glad you , like me, loved this episode. My post in the grade the episode thread shows how much i loved this episode, because i usually never get that enthusiastic for one episode, but it just was that good, i couldnt help myself

I hope Kalani returns, either this season or the next. I kind of want to see interact with Chopper and Alan Rickman droid AP-5, since all three of them are droid veterans from the clone wars.

 

I think we have not seen the end of Kalani.

 

Half Li......I mean TCW return confirmed.

Clearly the TCW material in this episode is just foreshadowing of the eventual return of TCW after Rebels is finished.


We are going to get those arcs eventually.....in animation.


*is in denial*

 

I loved the D-Squad mention. Clever. I love it.

 

Completely

 

That was awesome! I love the D-Squad arc and I like how Brent Friedman made a nod to his previous work in the franchise.

Oh, we will not. The best we will get are stories that evolved from those unfinished scripts for TCW. I can see by season five of "Rebels" that we will be going to Mon Calamari and there might finally be a mention of Tikkes in it. I mean, look how they are constantly mentioning Mandalore and the siege of Mandalore.

 

O I was saying that they were completely in denial.