Week 22: Season 4, Episodes 13-16

Family Reunion and Farewell

Huh. Well I shit on this show a lot but I'll be the first to admit that was a beautiful ending. Endings are hard to write but it seemed for these guys the ending was easy and the rest of it was hard. I think it worked. I'm glad Ezra finally became mature and I'm actually really curious what happens next with him and Thrawn. So it seems Ahsoka and Sabine go looking for him? I don't like that if I'm honest... Sabine should've gone back to Mandalore. And Ahsoka... I don't even know she literally did nothing man. Also Hera and Kanan's abomination... Yikes. When the hell did they smash anyway?

Also the thing with Palpatine was weird.. What did he want from Ezra? Does he control the WBW? Did he want to fuck with Ezra so the chain of events he starts don't happen? Idk. Also the hologram switching from his real and fake appearance doesn't make sense... But ok. I wish we got to see Kallus doing a little more. If I had to pick a favorite character it would probably be him or Kanan

I have been confused about the wolves for a while now so here is my theory:

Dume appears to Kanan to sort of get Kanan to manifest himself in him. The reason for this is so Kanan, even after death, can tell Ezra to close the gateway to the WBW before Palp gets his hands on it.

I also read some of Dave's reasoning on them. I figured the main reason for their addition was because Dave really likes wolves. But wolves are also associated with being guides. So these Loth wolves being guides for traveling through the world of the cosmic force is very interesting... Man I just don't know what to think. I don't think WBW and even the wolves are inherently bad things but this might've been the wrong place to show them. Either way it might be the most creativity Dave has ever shown lol

Ahsoka is so boring on this show

I’m not sure what I think of World Between Worlds. The concept is definitely cool. I feel like it wasn’t quite explored enough for all the time we spent on it. I don’t know. It really is a creative idea.

As for Ahsoka, it almost feels like they might have come up with this thing as a way to save her. And I don’t think they needed to have her here again. After thinking about it a lot, I think the show shouldn’t have included Ahsoka. Her story should have ended with the end of TCW.

I do like the Minister guy. Doesn’t seem as cliche as the Imperials we’re used to. Actually he’s a lot like Thrawn but I guess Thrawn kind of bailed on Season 4 like Vader did after Season 2. I don’t blame him for getting sick of these Rebels but it’s kind of jarring how little of a presence he has now.

I thought the Emperor was kinda goofy here. I guess he’s past giving a fuck but idk, what really was he trying to do? And he said “Ashoka” instead of “Ahsoka” Like come on, they couldn’t have asked him to do one more take? That’s just lazy, you guys.

I did really like the ending sequence though. Great music. Their escape actually felt really desperate and suspenseful. And liked the scene with Ezra and Hera.

So I did like the concept but the story overall was not especially strong. It still feels like a weird deviation we’ve taken since Kanan’s death. Like this was a three episode arc about getting over his death. It’s just kinda weird that it’s placed so close to the end and we haven’t really been using this time to establish what the endgame is.

7/10

Ok now Ezra’s got a sense of urgency? He thinks immediate action is necessary? Bruh then why did you spend the last three episodes jerking off wolves and crying?

Glad that Rex finally changed his clothes. It’s been like 20 years. Ground battle reminds me of Tipping Points.

A Fools Hope so definitely one of the best episodes this season. It’s good that the ghost crew finally remembered that they’re in a war. It was cool to see so many characters even though I wish some of them had more to do.

Good to see them taking out Weird Alien Ninja and the Governor. The two aren’t horrible villains but not what you’d expect for the final season. I guess they’re better than the Discount Inquisitors from Season 2, but are nothing next to Thrawn.

This was just a really fun episode. Good moments throughout and a cool ending. Good to get back on track after how slow this season became in the middle.

8.5/10

Of course they all fall for the pig on the glass

The finale was really well done and evoked real emotion. I rag on this show a lot but I don’t want to be bad so I can be “right” but I wish it could give us more episodes like this.

In a way, this entire show is an extended Onderon Arc. It ends beautifully, the lead up is almost all cliche filler. And when it’s over you have to ask yourself: was it worth it? Is this finale good because of what came before or in spite of it?

I don’t think many would argue though that this show took many missteps. It spent a lot of time on things that didn’t serve the story, rarely took advantage of its serialized, linear format, and would often cram ideas that could serve a half season of content into one or two episodes. I still do want to go into “how I would fix Rebels” and will probably do so after I finish TCW Season 7.

As for reviewing the finale, Disney+ didn’t actually break this one into two parts. Thus it’s a little tough to actually break the episode down into two reviews. I thought about reviewing the two as one. But that would give the episode less weight in season rankings so I’m cutting off Part 1 where Palpatine opens the temple for Ezra.

So at 23:31

Part 2 is great. It really just delivers KNW what I hoped there would be from the beginning. There felt like there were actual stakes. There was real urgency and intensity.

The emotion was real in this one. They did a great job of making you feel for all the characters. Part of me wishes Ezra hat flat out died to get rid of Thrawn but I’d never expect them to do that. But his moment where he says goodbye to his parents was brilliant.

Gregor’s death was really well done. I wasn’t really expecting it but it did hit right. Guess I just wish he’d been in the show more and not acted like a complete fucking idiot 90% of the time.

Was surprised when they killed off Hondo’s friend. That was unexpected and a great “reality of war” moment. Thought they really needed that with how that guy had seemed invincible earlier. Well done and actually kind of heart.... oh wait no he’s back. Turns out he really was invincible. Got it.

I had some issues with the ending though. First off, Jacen... eww. Well I mean I guess fine. We’ve seen human-twilek hybrids before though and they don’t look like that. Kind of a nitpick but I had to mention it.

Worse though is Ahsoka. Ahsoka, just why? I really hate how this show did her dirty, and then she’s just dressing like Gandalf at the end. For what? Would Sabine even remember her? I just feel now that they either should have made Ahsoka a bigger part of the story or cut her entirely. Her surviving last ROTJ raises so many plot holes.

And as much as I loved the Ezra-Palpatine stuff, it just didn’t make sense. Why would Palpatine want to give this to Ezra? And how did he even do it? This stuff should have been explained or at least hinted at in WBW. Was his plan really just to make the equivalent of Mabel Pines’ dream bubble for a Jedi?

I’m not trying to say I hate this episode. It’s great. Some of the best moments of the show. But despite that, there are things holding it back from being a perfect episode.

9/10. It would probably get a 10 if they cut the epilogue and let Hondo’s friend stay dead.

At first I was confused by this too a bit but I believe Palpatine wants Ezra to re-open the WBW and in return he would get his parents back (not really). And the vision of his parents and really any other weird thing Palp does I always just figure he is using his dark ritual enchantment table thing from the Yoda arc. I think that's what he used to give Anakin his nightmares

True..... Totally forgot about him. Guess the writers did too

After Kanan died? lol 🤔

Unless you meant the ending of WBW with Hera looking sad and shit implies he was conceived off screen? Because I mean that's pretty obvious since there was never any on screen banging lol