Hey YouTube, Urban Acolyte TV, and my name is Prince.
The last video I did in my “Rebels Rundown” series, I listed off my top 10 moments from
the series premiere of Rebels called “Spark of Rebellion.”
On this video I’m going to rundown 10 moments from the official first episode of season
1 called “Droids in Distress.”
So let’s get to my list.
10.
Rebels on the on the run from the Empire— We find that the Rebels are in need of fuel
and supplies.
Something to consider in every episode of Rebels is the day-to-day requirements of running
these missions.
The Rebels require fuel for the Ghost and the Phantom.
They need food, supplies, and credits.
So this comes down to them having to steal weapons for money.
We also see that Ezra wants Jedi training, but right now all he’s doing is learning
how to become a better thief.
Ezra feels like he could have stuck with his old life of having to steal to stay alive,
but what he fails to realize is that he’s actually refining his Force abilities.
It’s really easy to complain about some scenes episodes as being “filler” episodes
when nothing big or exciting is happening, but the fact is that all these little things
are what lead up to the big missions.
Even with the little minor missions, we can pick up clues about the state of the galaxy
and the lore of the Star Wars universe.
9.
Where is the translator?
Enter SeeThreepio and Artoo Deetoo.
Might these be the droids in distress mentioned in the episode’s title?
While the Rebels are on the transport to Garel, the details of their real mission begin to
become clear to the audience.
We see Minister Tua board the transport with an Aqualish arms dealer named, Amda Wabo.
I’m under the impression that there are quite a few Aqualish living on Lothal, but
for the purposes of the story, Mr. Wabo does not speak basic and requires a translator
to communicate with Minister Tua.
8.
Rebel’s Ruse Chopper creates a commotion that gets all
of the droids sent to the back of the transport and leaving Minister Tua in need of a translator.
Sabine mentions that she’s testing for level 5 at the Imperial Academy in order to gain
Minister Tua’s trust.
We learn here that Sabine,at some point, actually did train at the Imperial Academy.
We also learn something about a secret mission.
It appears that R2-D2 is part of a secret mission and whoever is in charge left C-3PO
out in the cold—because he’s a player hater. C-3PO is under the impression that
he is Minister Tua’s translator.
I’m guessing that this is their cover so that whoever C-3PO and R2 work for can investigate
Minister Tua.
Since C-3PO is in the back with the rest of the droids, Sabine steps in as Minister Tua’s
translator.
As part of the rebel’s plan, Sabine tells Minister Tua that “The shipment is being
held in Bay 17,” but it’s actually on Bay 7.
7.
Landing on Garel— please prepare for landing.
For the most part, the Rebels adventures will be on Garel and Lothal this season.
So Garel is located in the Lothal sector and it takes literally minutes to arrive there
by hyperspace.
In all honesty, I have trouble distinguishing Garel from Lothal.
The “in-universe” explanation is probably that Garel and Lothal share a similar atmosphere
and typography due to them being in the same part of space.
Maybe all of the inhabitable planets in that sector have these shared similarities.
I think the behind the scenes reason is just that the art people needed to repurpose the
assets from Lothal to shorten the time it took to complete the episode.
Some of the reasons that the Rebels don’t travel to all of these known planets people
ask about is because the art team needs time and money to create the assets for those planets.
I would much rather them blow their budget on telling a good story than doing something
like traveling to Tatooine just so a small minority of fans can see Boba Fett.
But if you want— I’ll try keeping track of where the Rebels have travelled.
So far they’ve been on Lothal and Garel in this episode.
Last episode they travelled to Kessel to rescue the Wookies from being sent to the spice mines.
Recall that this is the same Kessel mentioned when Han Solo says the Millennium Falcon flew
the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.
6.
T-7 Ion Disrupters These weapons were supposedly banned by the
Senate because they can short circuit an entire ship.
The truth is that those weapons were used to massacre the Lasat people.
Here’s a question to consider—if these weapons were banned by the Senate, why does
the Empire want to mass produced them on Lothal?
Why is the Empire attempting to mass produce banned weapons?
It’s not like the Empire is evil or anything?
Do you remember the people living in Tarkintown from the Spark of Rebellion Episode?
Well, as it turns out, some of those people had their lands confiscated so that the Empire
could turn their farms into a plant to produce weapons— some of the other farms were strip
mined…so that the empire can produce more weapons.
5.
Dispatch Agent Kallus We learn that Kallus had a hand to play in
the near extinction of the Lasat people.
This episode is setting up a storyline that we’re going to see played out that involves
Agent Kallus and Zeb.
Agent Kallus led the massacre of the Lasat people, and Zeb feels responsible as he was
the head of the Honor Guard on Lasat.
4.
It’s Strictly Business The reality is that the Rebels need to make
money to buy supplies.
On this episode, it means selling the T-7 Ion Disrupters to Vizago.
For Zeb, this is a personal matter.
Taking these weapons out of circulation is more important than anything else.
Unfortunately, the Empire shows up and Vizago takes off with half the Rebel’s shipment.
As for the Rebels, they are left with no money from the deal with Vizago and the Empire nipping
at their heels.
3.
Here Comes the Empire C-3PO’s efforts as a player hater are quickly
rewarded when the Empire opens fire on him after he snitched on the Rebels.
Lucky for him, these Stormtroopers can’t shoot.
Kanan takes out one of the Imperial Walkers with a T-7 Disrupter, and the rest are set
to detonate so that the Rebels can get away without allowing the weapons to fall into
the Empire’s hands.
2.
Use the Force, Ezra Agent Kallus and Zeb have all-out warfare
when Kallus says that he gave the order to use the T-7 disrupters on the Lasat people.
Just as Kallus is about to deliver the killing blow to Zeb— Ezra’s instincts kick in
and Kallus goes flying.
Perhaps this will smooth over the rough patch between Zeb and Ezra after Zeb’s d-bag move
last episode where Ezra was captured by Kallus
Rebels Reward It turns out that C-3PO and R2D2 have been
working for Bail Organa the entire time.
R2 has been recording everything from the time he and 3PO joined the Rebels crew.
Bail asks to see everything R2 recorded, so now, as the possible leader of a future Rebel
Alliance, Bail is aware that Ezra is Force sensitive and can use the Force under pressure.
I want to apologize that it’s taking me longer to get these reviews of Season 1 completed
than I thought.
I’m just going to get as many completed as I can, but by the time season 3 debuts
in the Fall, I’ll just be able to post my review a few days after the episode airs.
If this is your first time seeing Urban Acolyte TV, go ahead and subscribe.
Right now I’m reviewing all of Star Wars Rebels, seasons 1 and 2 along with my other
Star Wars videos.
I’m waiting for the Force Awakens DVD release so that I can dig deeper into some of the
fan speculations going around…and I’m also waiting on more details for Rogue One.
If you want to stay up when I post new Rebels videos or anything else Star Wars related,
the best thing to do is subscribe.
If you haven’t seen them already, you can go ahead and click here to see my previous
review for Spark of Rebellion.
That was a 1-hour episode to launch Star Wars Rebels.
You can also click the video below it to see my next review for episode 2, Fighter Flight.
I’m still editing that video, but the link will be active when that video posts.
It should be up sometime tomorrow depending on when I get home from mentoring the kids
I work with on the weekends.
That’s all I’ve got for now, thank you for watching.
Y’all keep on breathing, and May the Force Be With You.