TV Month - Star Wars Rebels Episodes 6-7 - Breaking Ranks/Out of the Darkness

We return to the front once more, as we take another look at Star Wars Rebels, and how their fight against the empire proceeds.

Episode 6 – Breaking Ranks

Holy sh*t Dante Basco is in this one.

Yup, we have an episode featuring Ezra infiltrating a stormtrooper academy to get his hands on a decoder to stop the empire transporting a kyber crystal for sinister purposes. The tests the cadets were undertaking reminded me somewhat of the tests the assassins took in the clone wars, although toned down somewhat (they actually train stormtroopers, the universe’s most incompetent fighting force?)

Ezra has a particular friendship with 2 trainees. Zare Loonis: a smart guy who knows not to take a decryption key through a sensor, and is searching for his lost sister, and Jai, who’s voiced by Dante Basco, and he’s quite competitive – other than that, not much character from him

We actually see Chopper do something useful for a change as he transmits messages between the groups on the ground. (Group 2 consisting of Zeb and Sabine) and does a bit of helping out in knocking out stormtroopers

When they discover the Inquisitor wants Jai, Ezra’s selfless instincts kick in, and he begins his rescue mission which by his own admittance, he wouldn’t have done back prior to the season opening.

Kanan and Hera have a few scenes together in the Ghost Ship, the issue is they don’t really develop any character in these scenes, just a space battle with Kanan worried about where Ezra might be.

Rating 8/10

Episode 7 – Out of the Darkness

You know how I said a few weeks back that Sabine doesn’t have any personality. Well episode goes someway to fixing that problem. Giving Sabine a tad of backstory, and giving her a small character arc, as she questions who our mysterious mission giver Fulcrum is, and becomes frustrated when she’s not  given an answer

In what hopefully will become a long-running mystery of the season, we will hopefully see Fulcrum give the team ever more dangerous missions leading to a revelation that will hopefully be interesting (Here’s hoping)

We also see Hera in a more prominent role this episode, which doesn’t really do her any favours as she still has the den-mother personality we’ve been seeing all series, reminding me a lot of how they portrayed Black Canary in Young Justice, except there she was a minor supporting character, here, she’s one of the leads.

We have a nice reference to the clone wars, as we see an old republic base on an asteroid field, we saw a few dropships and such. The animation can look a tad basic compared to the Clone Wars, but to be honest, aside from the wookies and slightly simplified C3PO and R2-D2 designs, it’s not that noticeable.

Zeb, Ezra and Chopper’s antics are getting a tad tiresome if I’m honest.

Oh look, Ezra’s catapult may actually work on something… Wait, never mind

Rating 7.5/10

For more reviews click here

Images used in this review are from Star Wars Rebels and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.