[CaptainCrunch]

Well its the end, and its kind of sad to be writing a final review of the final two episodes of Star Wars Rebels after watching the final two episodes "A fools hope" and "Family Reunion and Farewell"

I've loved this show over the final 3 years after it started as a bit of a light fluffy kids show, but it really came into its own, while it was nowhere near as dark as The Clone Wars, they still managed to address the desperation of the Rebels and the loss of a key team mate.

I loved the fact these episodes managed to sum up every aspect of the series as well as some key aspects of The Clone Wars.

The first episode "A Fools hope" is all about getting the family back together, I was glad to see the return of not only Wolfe and Gregor two familiar faces from earlier in the series but also the Clone Wars. But they also bought back Hondo to close off his character in a great way, Keatsu and others.

In this episode it was all about a major misdirection as the Rebels suckered Governor Pryce into an ambush by having Ryder fake his defection from the Rebels. We got a great action scene with the Wolves routing the Imperials and taking Pryce Hostage so that they could get the Imperials into the dome so they could launch it into space.

This whole episode was a bit of a misdirection as the main battle was yet to come into play with the return of Thrawn, which happened in the final episode.

Ezra has really become a Jedi in this episode as he had a plan inside of a plan, when Thrawn returned and threatened to destroy the city, he snuck out and surrendered to Thrawn. That whole scene was really well done with Sabine understanding that Ezra had to sacrifice himself, so she distracted Hera who was still bruised from the loss of Kanan and didn't want to lose another team members.

Ezra sacrificed himself knowing that no matter what Thrawn was going to destroy the city, but he gave his team enough time to get a planetary shield up.

Ezra meanwhile was taken to see the Emperor and I loved this scene as we saw the cagey devious Palpatine that we saw in the Clone Wars, not the somewhat lazy and complacent Emperor from ROTJ. It was clear that the Emperor voiced by Ian McDarmid's only interest was taking Ezra all the way out of the game and he pulled out all the stops.

He showed up in a hologram as the kindly grandfatherly looking Palpatine instead of the scarred evil Sidious. He put Ezra parents in from of Ezra and gave him the choice of saving his parents or saving his friends reflecting Palpatine's seduction of Anakin.

You see this is the powerful seductive lure of the Darkside, if you accept it at face value, it will give you whatever you want.

It was a well done scene and even better when Ezra resisted the temptation and destroyed the Temple entrance. Then we finally saw what the Imperial Guard could do as they resisted a Jedi Force push and we finally saw what Force Pikes could do, but Ezra used a Force Unleashed power up and crushed the Troopers.

Meanwhile in the dome the Rebels desperately fought for control of the shield generator. In that battle they lost Gregor and the Empire lost their favorite assassin.

This is where they finally summed up the Clone Wars nicely as Gregor died after remarking that it was good to fight for something that they chose to fight for. In The Clone Wars it was clear that the Clone Troopers were enslaved both by chips in their heads and by their indoctrination to obey their orders blindly. In the end Gregor died for what he believed in and the Clones got some redemption.

With the Shield up, Ezra encountered Thrawn in the bridge.

What was exceptional about this series was that in the end it was clear that there weren't many episodes that had something key.

When Thrawn encountered the Bendu, the Bendu predicted exactly how Thrawn was going to fall. When they had the weird episode with the Space Whales, it wasn't filler as Ezra used his affinity with the Force to bring the Whales back.

In the end Ezra stayed with Thrawn as the Whales seized the Star Destroyer with Thrawn, and in a sad moment he bid his family farewell and went to Hyperspace.

With the empire defeated the Rebels prepared for a battle that never came as the Empire's focus shifted to the Rebels and the threat of Luke Skywalker.

The series fast forwarded to after the battle of Endor and we see Sabine in the same position in the same tower as the series started in with Ezra. We learned that Kallus and Zeb returned to the Lasat home planet and Kallus learned that he didn't kill all the Lasat and was accepted.

We learned that Rex was indeed the white bearded rebel in Jedi. We learned that Sabine had fulfilled her promise to Ezra by being Lothal's defender. Meanwhile we learned that Kanan and Hera had been doing more then kissing and it had produced a son Jacen.

The final scene showed the return of Ashoka who looked awesome in white. Remember in the temple episode when Ezra told her to come find him when the time was right. Well clearly the time was right as Sabine and Ashoka left to bring Ezra home.

Appearance wise this episode was again really well done. Filoni didn't miss any details as he closed off all of the major character stories and even some minor character stories.

We finally saw that Hondo did have some nobility.
Zeb and Kallus put their pasts behind them
The Clones finally got the fight they wanted and the victory they needed.
Pryce went out somewhat like a boss, she found her courage in the end as she refused rescue and stared death in the face.



When the Clone Wars ended, we knew what was coming as a new series. We are now left with a lot of speculation.

There's clearly a great story about Ashoka and Sabine on a quest to find Ezra.

But now the theories can start.

Ezra in the unknown region with Thrawn, is there a possible link to the First Order to be discovered. (BTW this ending certainly stirred up the Ezra is Snoke theory again).

Is Jacen force sensitive, is there a link to Luke's Jedi academy.

What ever became of Thrawn?

I'm sad to see the series end, in a lot of ways, I think story telling wise and character wise it in some ways surpasses TFA and TLJ, but maybe that's just me.

Palpatine with the rolling tongue Rebel friends. So awesome.



Dave Filoni is a Star Wars god.

The end.

Thanks for reading.