Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and this week Rebels paired up Ezra and Zeb for a very special
Tie Fighter Field Trip.
Normally I just point out my favorite references and do a review but I spotted some funny subliminal
messages that I’ll explain too.
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Careful for spoilers if you haven’t seen the episode but here are my TOP 5 moments.
Number 5 - Chopper Robo Trolls Everyone
The R5 Droid being an asshole provides the call to action that sets the big Ezra Zeb
field trip in motion.
But it didn’t stop there.
Later in the episode when Kanan and Hera were chilling out playing Dejarik, Chopper really
let them have it.
The scene was a nice reference to the R2 versus Chewbacca match in Episode 4 with the twist
that Chopper didn’t have to let Kanan win for fear of getting his arms ripped out of
their sockets.
When Ezra and Zeb came back he doubled down on harassing them.
I’m surprised Zeb didn’t prank him with a restraining bolt or something.
Troll me once, shame on you, troll me twice, shame on me.
Number 4 - The Wookiee Life Debt
They don’t specify how much time has passed since the last episode, but Ezra is still
having fun with Zeb for saving his life.
The Wookiee life debt isn’t explained in the original trilogy really well but the expanded
universe and the comics picked up the slack.
Chewbacca was rescued from an Imperial Prison Ship by a young Han Solo.
He had been ordered to kill him by his Imperial supervisor but instead freed Chewie and the
other Wookiees, al lot like the crew of the Ghost did in the first episode.
When a Wookiee owes their life to someone, the debt lasts until they are dead.
But I think their children can also choose to honor it under special circumstances.
It’s nice to see them coming together as a group but Zeb seemed a little too easy to
bait.
He’s not a version of Chewbacca or anything, but he does fill that role in the crew.
The big scary alien covered in fur.
Yes this is a kid’s show, but I feel like he would be more fun if they just let him
be scary and over the course of the series Ezra won him over.
It seems like he wears his emotions on his sleeves, or wrist bands or whatever he’s
wearing there.
Under normal circumstances, after Ezra and Chopper busted in on him sleeping, I would
expect someone with his personality to just shoot a warning shot at them with a small
blaster.
Just to scare them off.
We learned last week his entire race was slaughtered with a few exceptions, so I’m not sensing
the typical Post Traumatic Stress Behavior you’d expect.
Number 3 - All For Love of Fruit
They were there for regular supplies, which they lost.
But Hera trolls them a little with a mission to nowhere, so she thinks.
She wasn’t trying to be mean, but it is funny to think that everything in the episode
that happened was a result of them being kind of rotten to each other.
Even Sabine made fun of them with the graffiti in their room.
It wasn’t her trying to be awful to them.
But in a really subtle way I felt like the show was telling us all these characters have
good hearts, but they’re still really selfish.
And if you didn’t catch it in the Dejarik scene.
Hera and Kanan are totally doing it on the down low.
They haven’t had a lot of scenes together in the last 3 episodes.
But there are some trailer clips with them ‘almost kissing’ so you can tell they
have a relationship that the show will explore at some point.
Hera is one of the few characters we haven’t spent a lot of time with yet but she and Sabine
will both get their own episodes soon.
Number 2 - Ezra Learns to Use the Force
It takes him most of the episode to land the trick but he’s able to use some limited
force telekinesis.
As of now he’s exhibited near future premonitions, a force push and now telekenisis.
I guess you could say he’s made some small force jumps.
Some of his rooftop acrobatics are a little superhuman.
We still haven’t seen him train with Kanan’s lightsaber, I think that will be next.
That and just getting better at the lesser Jedi powers.
They gave Zeb the Obi-Wan Kenobi line, “This is not the tie fighter you’re looking for”.
But after some lightsaber training I think we’ll see Ezra start to learn how to influence
weaker minds.
The stormtroopers on the show are pretty dumb, so they’ll be easy targets.
Of all the Jedi Powers, the ones that allow you to control others are harder to master.
So I’m interested to see if they just let him do it right away or if he has to work
up to it.
If they’re planning on doing a big Ezra force weilding moment in the finale this year
it would probably be a lightsaber battle with the inquisitor.
Like the first time luke fought Vader and got his ass “handed” to him.
Ezra is learning to use the force, but he is light years away from being able to take
on someone as skilled as the Inquisitor.
I would be pissed if they let him win a lightsaber battle with him.
Even Anakin Skywalker wasn’t that great with a lightsaber when he first started.
In order for villains to be a threat, they have to seem unbeatable.
And my Number 1 moment - Tie Fighter Joyrides
Totally loved them stealing a Tie Fighter, did not love all the flying through the city.
I get that Zeb hadn’t flown one before but I feel like they let the moment drag on too
long.
Him talking to Ezra, flying it along side him while Ezra ran on the roof tops.
It felt a little more like a Family Guy gag, like Peter is flying a Tie Fighter up and
down the aisles of a grocery store.
Casual Use of Tie Fighters is a funny concept but I feel like the joke peaked when he was
spinning it in circles blasting everyone.
I think they could have cut away sooner and used the extra time for a scene where the
imperials punish the farmers for everything.
They didn’t really follow the rescue idea through to the logical conclusion.
Ezra and Zeb crash the tie fighter so the imperials don’t find them, but then after
they leave the planet, the imperials just go back and kill the farmer and his wife.
They were very clearly trying to do the Uncle Owen Aunt Beru episode 4 scene with the smoldering
ruins.
It’s a kid’s show like I said, so they’re not going to murder a bunch of people.
But don’t you feel like the imperials would go right back after Ezra and Zeb flew off.
He didn’t destroy their transports.
Just one of the gun turrets.
They had more weapons.
And they’re not the only imperials on the planet.
Part of the theme this week was taking the quick and easy way will leave you worse off
than when you started.
They had the supplies but because Ezra wanted to steal the fruit they lost everything.
And even though they saved his farmer friend.
The Empire is still going to take their farm.
So they didn’t change anything.
Let me know what your favorite moment was and let me know if you spotted these subliminal
messages:
I feel like this is a little Disney Propaganda here but first and most obvious was that you
should eat more fruit.
Ezra almost got them killed because he loves fruit so much.
The storm trooper even asked him, “you did this all for fruit?”
The other big one was when Zeb gave him the Tie Fighter Helmet.
I feel like that’s Disney telling you to buy more Star Wars toys.
Ezra collects toys, toys cost money, a lot of money.
Money equals profit.
Anytime I see characters lusting after objects like they’re toys I feel like it’s merchandising
for Star Wars toys in real life.
George Lucas made millions of dollars on the movies, but he made Billions of Dollars on
the toys.
The toys are where all the money is.
Overall I gave the episode a B minus, I feel like there was a good moral throughline about
not straying from the path too far and working together as a team.
I feel like they’re doing Zeb’s character a disservice in making him so quick to open
up to a kid.
Ezra that is.
He’s younger than Luke was when he boarded the Millenium Falcon.
Young children who mostly hang around adults in cartoons tend to fall into a couple categories.
They’re either a Bart Simpson character who gets into mischief all the time, like
Aladdin.
I know everyone is calling Ezra Space Aladdin.
Or they’re Meg Griffin and they become the but of all the jokes.
I don’t think that Ezra is Meg, I do like the direction they’re taking his character.
But I don’t like it as much when they really lean hard on the Bart Simpson stuff.
Stealing the heads off of Stormtroopers and pranking Zeb.
Who I guess in this analogy would be Moe the Bartender.
I’m really excited to see more of the inquisitor, who I think is coming back in episode 4 next
week.
Since Monday nights I’m usually working on Gotham, I’ll just be posting Rebels videos
on Tuesdays, so be sure to subscribe to get everything.
There’s a lot going on this week with the new Legend of Korra game, I’ll be streaming
that.
So check the description for those links.
Right now click here for Rebels Episode 2 and click here to catch up on Legend of Korra.
Thanks for watching, now let’s all high five and stream some Korra.