Full Series Rebels 3.08 - Iron Squadron - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Dark Times atmosphere is very important and in many ways a central in Rebels.(supposed to be)
I remember Batman(animated series) was essentially for kids yet in this series creators was very carefull and masterfully recreate Gotham - gothic night city.
Episode like this one just break all Dark Times atmosphere entirely. Bunch of kids with no military training was able to successfully attack Imperial Transport Ship despite support of the several TIE Fighters...
After kid was captured and Rebels rushing to the rescue ...Knowing this is trap. But they go anyway and... Taking down more TIE fighters + Light Cruiser. And they save everyone...
This is the Dark Times but only for the Empire...
There is no consequences... It will be better if they go and succesfully save the kid but lost a lot of redshirts and Sato was captured by Thrawn.(Why Konstantine summon him anyway? Not for a lecture i guess...)

 

Yea, this episode was just kind of "there." I didnt think it was bad, but I was very passive in watching it, which is unusual for my viewing for much of Star Wars. Usually I'm so into it, and exclaim things during the episode like "DID YOU SEE THAT ****?!" But this time i just watched and when it ended I said "Okay then," and flipped over to Curb.

Ah well. Cool to see a YT-2400 in action though.


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Psst, all of you who are hoping for Filoni to throw the Hail Mary pass.

...he's no longer the helm of the show. Better start leaving offerings to Justin Ridge's altar.

 

Not the best episode ever -- but certainly not so bad that some people say it's a reflection of the entire show!

What the episode meant to me:

The Alliance is bigger and more diverse that ever really shown in the films. Different kinds of rebellious actions and different kinds of understanding of what it means to rebel.
Who knows -- maybe a character or 2 will show up in Rogue One and everyone will line up to buy then action figure!

Without this kind of exposition the celebrations added into RofJ make a heck of a lot more sense.

I too like seeing more Force explorations and feel Thrawn killing Iron Squadron rather than let them escape would be more enjoyable. But jeez -- 24 minutes from your Star Wars lives and we got Thrawn, hints of some rivalry with him and Sato, Ezra growing up, new space ships -- not too shabby.

 

Sad to say but I think that was as bad an episode of Rebels as I can remember there being. A whole ship of Ezras (pre-character-development Ezra besides) Imperials who spent maybe half an episode flying around shooting and hit things maybe once or twice in that whole time, Thrawn turns up only to let them go because... well I have no idea. If it was only to scam/analyse Sato he really needn't have bothered turning up in a freaking STAR DESTROYER... then doing absolutely nothing with it. Konstantine basically got trolled by Thrawn because I have no idea why. The Ghosts go from telling Iron Squadron to run because they can't actually win (sensible) to... fighting even though they can't win (not sensible.) A lucky Sato Ex Machina and Thrawn's complete reluctance to pull his finger out of his blue backside is the ONLY reason this season (and even the show) doesn't end eight episodes in.

Terrible. Just awful.

 

For those who think Konstantine etc should be dead. Fact is - if ALL of the high ranking Imperials were able to and just did kill lower ranked officers ALL the time -- well:

1 - no one would enlist
2 - dealing with Vader would not be as scary anymore -- would it?

 

I agree they should have had the nephew of Sato captured and Thrawn let the rebels think he was killed by Konstantine so at some key point Thrawn would reveal to Sato his nephew was still alive and force him to turn on the rebels but in the process Sato would recruit the rebels to rescue his nephew but Thrawn is waiting for them!

Lots of possibilities and they didn't take any of them!

Frankly more annoyed at the latest Thunderbirds are Go episode where they had a perfect means of revealing what happened to Jeff Tracy and still keep us guessing and they still ignored the obvious plot development!

Compared to TAG the latest Star Wars Rebels at least showed the Empire is a threat just not from Konstantine!

 

No he shouldn't have.

I'm a big proponent of accurate physics, but this instance was perfectly scientifically sound. Humans can survive in a vacuum for much longer than Kanan was out there. It's not an instant death.

 

I do hope we see important sacrifices at the end of Rebels, removing Kanan and Ezra from the equation.

It feels like Rebels with a mix of Imperial incompetence, constant Rebel victories, and the strong focus on Ezra and Kana's Jedi journey, they are presenting a "New Hope" to the Rebellion before the true "New Hope" should come about.

The late dark times should be about the underdog Rebellion......where victory isn't common, Imperials are good at killing those who oppose them, and the fire of the Jedi has gone out. Rebellion has no more supermen.

So hopefully the TV show Rebels will have a well made ending that respects the setting while leaving room between its end and Rouge One to explore a Jediless Rebellion.

The finale of this show to further set up why the Rebellion needs a new hope, should be depressing, not one where the Jedi duo and friends get to walk into the sunset.

 

But in One Piece the heroes get hurt, all the time, they bleed, sometimes they are agonizing, their enemies may lose at the end but at least they have some victories before being defeated, they hurt them, they crush them!

You don't need the heroes to die, but at least you need to see them in danger, that they can take damage, etc! this NEVER happen in Rebels, they never get hurt! they always avoid the blaster bolts, always survive the explosions without any casualties, etc! I want to see them hurt from time to time, it would be more realistic and at least we could fear "a bit" for them, there would be a sense of danger... but we never see them in real danger, we never fear for them.

And Kanan is far more effective without his sight so it's no big deal, he is even better without his eyes and can one-shot two Tie Fighters in 3 seconds. So we don't really "feel" his loss at all.

 

I gotta say I live that hull design. Pity the markings are so faint (I had to go back and rewatch the episode to be sure it was even the same ship). Who's willing to bet it's the Chimaera?

 

actually according to https://twitter.com/stevenmelching/status/800847365758275584 this tweet, it was called the Chimarea in the scripts.

 

mattman8907 Ooooh ok, awesome! The link to the tweet you posted doesn't seem to be working for me, though I'm pretty sure I know which one you mean, as I was actually the dork questioning the ship's ID. Totally forgot the guy is the series story editor...

 

well i'm glad you asked that. I'm just hoping we'll see the Chimaera in the thrawn novel as well as the canonized version of Captain Gilad Pellaeon.

 

Oh yes, we simply can't have Thrawn and the Chimaera without Pellaeon.

 

I understand where you're coming from. There certainly needs to be more danger/consequences shown to the heroes. That's one of the reasons why Twilight of the Apprentice was so well received because it least showed some degree of consequences with the main characters.

But yeah we barely get to feel the effects of Kanan's blindness aside from his depressive state in the S3 premiere and the fact that Ezra has to help him from time to time.

You're right that Rebels does not show the consequences of war very well. It was shown when Rex survived a blaster bolt to the chest in the Last Battle without an injuries. At least in the TCW episode, The Deserter Rex had to be treated when he received a similar injury that could've easily killed him. It wasn't like Rex was all, "Tis just a flesh wound. Now let's fight some more Clankers!"

Now Rebels has dark themes certainly but it does not show the consequences. I completely agree with you there. It is just that your last post made it sound like the reason why Rebels hasn't killed any main characters off is because it is for children. That's why I pulled out the One Piece example. But I'm glad you're informed about that show.

 

No we can't. makes me wanna re-read Heir to the Empire.

 

In defense of that particular situation, Pablo confirmed on Rebels Recon that Rex survived that hit because the droids' weapons were old and faulty (same reason why Rex was able to take out a droideka with a simple helmet throw, right through it's shielding and everything). Still, I do get what you're trying to say though.

I think, more than anything, the show's main problem is the fact that it doesn't have any main overarching plot whatsoever. Technically, you really can't even call any of the episodes "filler" because, while it may have a basic overall premise and a few underlying subplots here and there, that's all it has. There's no specific primary story the series is telling, at least not at the moment. And unfortunately you can only have so many seasons involving random weekly anti-imperial escapades before the audience starts getting bored.

 

"Iron Squadron" was an OK episode, clearly designed to show us how much Ezra has matured.

 

They can't afford to kill or injure anyone because there is nothing to be lost, it's a catch 22. If Zeb, Sabine and possibly even Ezra dies, what would the consequence for any of these one show stories be?

 

Black Star Gunner

I can understand you not liking what Filoni does for the show but don't creator bash.

 

Can someone explain to me why the Ghost and YT-2400 were not blown to bits in this episode?

Surely this is a complete plot error?
Hera tells the droids that the red flashing light on the "mine" is the detonator. As soon as Chopper deactivates this red light, the Imperial officer loses the mine's signal so would be unable to detonate it. That makes sense, but then the droids move the mine to the cargo pod and reactivate it! We see the red detonator flashing, and the Imperial officer confirms that he has reacquired the line's signal.

So with a still live "mine" just meters away Hera now believes it's safe to attach the ghost onto the YT-2400? Seeing the two ships together the Imperial commander (after waiting for this exact point to take out both ships) orders his mine to be detonated.....but for some unexplainable reason the mine detonator is inactive again!?? and the mine cannot be exploded. So now Hera is adamant that the cargo container is now a bomb??? And the cargo container hitting the Cruiser sets off the traitorous mine wrecking the whole ship. I'm sorry but who wrote that? That is absolutely horrible plot armour/weaponry.

Seriously the Ghost crew should all be dead or being tortured by Thrawn right now. Also this Imperial commander did absolutely nothing wrong yet gets blamed by Thrawn? That isn't Thrawn.

 

Once you see those two stupid droids up there near your mine, press the button.

JUST DO IT.