Star Wars Rebels season 3 episode 8 review - Iron Squadron

Now that Star Wars Rebels is done with it's 1 week hiatuses, we can get back to normal, here's my thoughts on the latest episode

Iron Squadron

OK, Grand Admiral Thrawn, in the next episode you appear in, actually do something impressive, kay?

In this episode, the rebels come across a group of young fighters in a cargo ship who drop bombs on small imperial cruisers, but they’re plucky and determined and won’t leave for the inevitable imperial attack unless the ghost crew can convince them.

Yeah, this episode is predictable, it plays out pretty much exactly as you’d expect and the humour they try with the Iron Squadron not knowing what a Star Destroyer is doesn’t help matters really. Admiral Constantine is told to come in with a single light cruiser but ends up with 3 ships and several TIE fighters… go figure how that works.

The Iron Squadron are very similar to Ezra at the early stages, just after he joined the ghost and agreed to fight but before season 2 started calming his rough edges (and creating new ones but that’s semantics) and in some ways, I can see why people were not happy about this, Ezra could be a tad annoying in his early stages and the stubbornness of the Iron Squadron could rub people the wrong way. It personally didn't bother me as much. 

In addition, it could’ve allowed for some character development for Ezra. Having him quote the line from Yoda from the last season should’ve been a powerful moment but it ultimately proves he’s yet to fully understand them and it really doesn’t offer him much development.

And yes, I’m not exaggerating when I say Thrawn does nothing in this episode. Governor Pryce has proven a more capable villain in the few episodes she’s been in than Thrawn has. (Admiral Constantine is still incompetent and Kallus is clearly turning)

I do understand, however, that Thrawn is a tactician, he seeks to study his opponents and do maximum damage when the time comes, I just hope that time comes sooner because him doing nothing is kind of boring, and we do need to justify him in terms of the show as a tactician, and not rely on the EU to prove it.

Rating 6/10

Images/clips 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