Another fun episode.
The sixth episode for the third season of Star Wars Rebels,
Imperial Super Commandos, has Sabine, Ezra and the captured Fenn Rau go to
investigates his Mandalorian outpost after contact is lost. The episode is
another side mission and providers more background about Sabine and what has
happened to Mandalore after the fall of the Republic. On the surface this
episode feels and seems like more filler and doesn’t advance any overall main
story arc for the season. However, I think the Mandalorians are going to play a
major role in the season and this might be the introduction of a major arc
involving them and how they could help the Rebellion.
Overall the episode is solid. It expands the backstory of
Sabine and has some great actions sequences. The introduction of the
Mandalorian Stormtroopers is another plus for the episode and welcome addition
to Rebels overall. It sets up to hopefully have Mandalore to play a bigger role
in the season overall. Filoni was able to bring in Mandalore and establish
their culture in the Clone Wars. The plan might be to have Sabine and Rau be a bridge
to bring them into the fold. During the fight with the Super commandos Sabine’s
mother is mentioned and they say she is helping the Empire on Mandalore. The leader also mentions that Sabine’s mother
is disappointed in her because she left the Imperial Academy. This could lead
to the crew traveling to Mandalore to see Sabine’s mom and to help Fenn Rau
gain control of Mandalore and secure their support for the Rebellion.
I hope this is what Imperial Super Commandos is setting up.
If not, then this episode was another fun interesting side mission that seems
to have little overall impact for the main stories. Knowing how Dave Filoni has
decided to tell his stories I doubt this is the case. This episode needs to be
the start of a bigger arc or it would seem the season has stalled. Nothing has
been moved forward since the first two episodes of the season. We have seen
Thrawn setting up traps, but nothing has moved forward with the main story
line. What is the main story for this season? I thought it would be the crew
fighting Thrawn and suffering losses through the year or finding more out about
the Death Star. This has yet to materialize and I am hoping we start to see a
main story thread start to develop.
The biggest problem I had with this episode, and the season
overall, is the continued reliance on Chopper to get the crew out of trouble. In
this episode he unlocks Sabine and Ezra after Rau gets the drop on them in the
shuttle. For this episode Chopper is part of the mission. Rau knows he is on
the shuttle. It made no sense for him not to do something with Chopper after he
knocks out Sabine and Ezra. Granted after Rau sees the destruction of his
outpost he doesn’t care about Ezra and Sabine escaping, but he didn’t know that
before he walked out and saw the base. Then later Ezra is compelled to reveal
his force powers to save Chopper. Granted Chopper is part of the crew and a
meaningful one. I don’t mind Ezra revealing himself to save Chopper. I just
would prefer Chopper to not be as big of a part of every episode. I probably
should just get over this aspect since the show is geared for kids and he
providers the comic relief to keep them engaged. However, they should still
make his portions of the story make sense within the framework of the show.
This was another good episode for the third season. I hope this
was the start of a longer story arc involving the Mandalorians. If not, it’s
still just another solid side mission. The show does need to start moving forward
with a more focused narrative. The side episodes are fun and good character development,
but the main narrative should be explored to keep the audience engaged. Having more
side missions, you run the risk of the audience tuning out thinking they can
miss episodes and it not affect how they watch the show.
What did you think of this episode? Do you want
a more major story arc in involving the Mandalorians? Do you think this was
just another side episode? Comment and let me know.
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