Welcome to a new Five Thoughts series on Multiversity Comics! This series will be tackling each episode of the second season of Star Wars: Rebels starting with last night’s “The Lost Commanders”. Now, I know what you may be thinking: why are we starting with season two when we didn’t cover the first season? Well, that’s because I was very late to the party with this show last year and didn’t watch it until it had finished airing. Which is why I wrote a retrospective review of the first season and the Siege Of Lothal movie that kicked off season two, so check that out if you want to see what I thought of last season.
But without further ado, let’s check out the first episode to Star Wars: Rebels‘ second season, “The Lost Commanders”.
1. Kanan Jarrus & The Ghosts Of The Clone Wars
If you’ve been reading “Star Wars: Kanan” (which you should because it’s amazing), then you’ll know about the history Kanan has with Clone Troopers that is explored in this episode. Being a Jedi that survived Order 66, it’s easy to see why he would harbour some animosity towards seeing the Clones again, especially when the first thing they do upon seeing his lightsabre is open fire on him. This brought an interesting layer to this episode as we get to see not only Kanan deal with the trauma of his past and try and convey the history of the Jedi and the destruction to Ezra, but we get to see what it was like for the Clones to be used as puppets for the Emperor in destroying the people they were so close to, especially after how attached we got to them after The Clone Wars.
This set this episode off on a good foot as it brought a lot of the moral ambiguity and questions that were present through the best episodes of The Clone Wars to Rebels and showed that this series is much more than just Star Wars for kids.
2. You Can’t Keep A Good Clone Down
As I said, I loved seeing the Clones return, especially Rex. Having spent six seasons getting to know the personalities and traits of different Clones and seeing them as separate individuals and characters as opposed to the uniformed cannon fodder that they were portrayed as in the movies, the thought of never seeing any of them again was one of the sadder elements of The Clone Wars‘ ending. Thankfully, thought, it turns out Rex and two other Clones, Wolffe and Gregor (who were both Clones that were in The Clone Wars), having been living out on a planet that is just one huge salt plain in what is essentially an RV made out of an AT-TE.
While one of the things I loved about the first season of Rebels was seeing elements of the Original Trilogy, like TIE Fighters and Stormtroopers, it was amazing hearing Dee Bradley Baker’s dulcet tones again as the Clones and the acknowledgement that the Clones didn’t just disappear after the end of the Republic. While many went on to be Stormtroopers, many were retired by Palpatine and tossed aside, showing just how callous his use for them was. This episode pulled double duty in marrying the two shows together while showing just how much has changed since the end of The Clone Wars.
3. Tensions Among The Ghost Crew
This was something that only showed up in the short scene that set up the episode at the beginning, but it’s a development that began in last season’s finale and continued through Siege Of Lothal: the differences in Hera and Kanan’s view of the Rebellion. With Hera being the daughter of Ryloth’s foremost freedom fighter, Cham Syndulla (go watch the ‘Liberty On Ryloth’ episode of The Clone Wars or read Lords Of The Sith for more information on him), it makes sense for her to fit right into the burgeoning militarisation of the Rebel Alliance. Kanan, however, with his noted experience with military being rather terrible and his comfort zone keeping him closer to the small time thief and smuggler kind of rebels has began to butt heads with Hera in this regard.
Continued belowThis is quite the development seeing as last season portrayed them as essentially the parents of the Ghost crew and entirely in sync (to the point where the fans have begun to view them as an old married couple) and makes for a very interesting dynamic. It shows that they both have a stubborn streak when it comes to their allegiances and priorities and it will be definitely interesting to see how that develops, whether they continue to operate with the Alliance or if they branch off to continue their own localised Rebellion around Lothal.
4. Wait… Was This All Just An Elaborate Dune Reference?
With Rebels having a runtime of only 22 minutes per episode, they can’t exactly get as much done as most 40 minute shows we cover here on Multiversity. That being said, this episode did do a good job of balancing the character-driven, emotional dialogue scenes that keep the story flowing and are the main draw for adult fans like myself through they’re worldbuilding and the action scenes that keep the kids engaging. I found it hilarious, though, that this episode’s big action setpiece was… fishing for sand worms with Zeb as bait.
I guess what they say is true, he who controls the spice really does control the universe.
See… that’s funny because spice mining is a thing in Star Wars and, you know, with the sand worm and everything… ah, forget it, let’s move on.
5. Teasing The Future
The thing that surprised me most this episode was the cliffhanger ending, teasing a To Be Continued in the second episode. If I remember correctly, this is the first time we’re seeing a two-parter on Rebels and I couldn’t be happier. Multi-episode story arcs were something of a staple of The Clone Wars and were used as connecting chapters in a much larger story that weaved into the narrative of larger Clone Wars as a whole. If Rebels can start to utilise that this season to create multi-episode arcs within the larger narrative of the season, then I think Filoni and the team behind the show will be able to bring a lot of depth to the show that I thought was missing for a lot of the first season.
And with a battle between the Ghost crew with the Clones and the Empire teased in the next episode, I cannot wait until next week.
