Star Wars Rebels Season 2 episodes 10-11 review - A Princess on Lothal/The Protector of Concord Dawn

A Princess on Lothal

Here's a joke I know you're all thinking of...

Sorry, I had to do it. Princess Leia is in this episode, not voiced by Carrie Fisher but given that she barely sounded like herself in The Force Awakens I’ll count my blessings.

She provides an interesting mirror to Ezra in many ways, both have had a lot of responsibilities thrust upon them at an early age (they were born on the same day, folks) and whilst Leia has yet to have to deal with loss (just wait…) she can easily relate to the struggle that Ezra’s going through and him constantly questioning himself.

So, Senator Oragana has heard about the rebels’ losses thanks to the Garell attack, he’s sending them reinforcements with the unfortunate implication that ships mean more than manpower in this fight. Every ship that gets shot down is a man dead, but I suspect that’ll only mean anything if it’s someone close to them

Prisoner X10 (whose real name I can’t remember) is also in this episode, and whilst he’s reluctant to go back to prison again, a capture early on suggests he must leave Lothal, but the battles convince him to continue the fight. I dunno, maybe it’s Clancy Brown voicing but I don’t feel like all is well with him, there might be something else to this, but I’m just theorising, I’m not even sure he’s going to be a regular member (he said he was going home at the end, back to Lothal?)

Leia on the other hand has another problem, she can’t be seen associated with the rebels, in fear it might put her planet in bad taste with the senate (which wasn’t dissolved until ep 4) so this provides some nice action set pieces but sadly limits her involvement in them.

The action is fine, no jedi on inquisitor or sith action for me to gush over but it’s nice, each character gets to do something, the odds aren’t heavy although it did seem far from ‘impossible’ as they thought it would be.

Overall a strong start to the second half of the season, I feel this was a better episode for character growth than many of the character focused episodes

Rating 8/10

The protector or Concord Dawn

Mm, the main character shield is strong with this one

So yeah, this episode is a really good character focused episode for Sabine, however, I’m going to start with my two main issues with this episode

The first, I know Hera’s an expert pilot but how come her ship was hit by at least too blasts and she only ends up injured whilst the other members of Phoenix squad are killed by a single shot? This is the most blatant example of a main character shield I have ever seen in any show I’ve watched and that too me right out.

The second, Sabine is angry about Hera being hurt but, like most episode, doesn’t give two seconds thought to the other pilots who didn’t even survive. This show needs to acknowledge that these pilots are people too, with value and should take any loss with a degree of respect to them. I recognise this was a problem in many of the old Star Wars movies, but those losses more often occurred at the climax of the movie and they don’t have the time that Rebels does. At least with clones occasionally some deaths were treated with dignity, and with others you can at least argue the ‘there’s another hundred just like him’ stance.

So, the episode itself, Sabine stows away on a peace mission to Concord Dawn, a Mandalorian base where the people serve the empire for profit. They try and convince them to join the rebellion, needing a route past imperial patrols but Sabine’s attempt to force their hand means her vengeful side comes at risk at coming out.

Next of the new characters is Fenn Rau, protector of Concorde Dawn. If you read Kanan #10 like I did, you’ll see that Kanan and Fenn Rau have a connection, both being involved in a major battle. It’s nice once or twice to draw a connection between the comic and the show and the fact that they both came out on the same day, icing on the cake.

And again we get some good character development for Sabine as her Mandalorian side, especially since her mother was a part of Deathwatch, seems to come out and she has to be persuaded to find peace. She sees what might happen and is quite smart about how things play out.

The ending is interesting. They capture Fenn Rau who, not wanting the empire to overrun Concord Dawn, instructs that his capture remain secret and becomes a reluctant ally to the rebels, allowing their passage. It’s an interesting conclusion and not a bad setup for things to blow up in the rebels’ face, assuming that’s the path they’re going for

Rating 7.5/10

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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.