Tuesday, 8 November 2016

Star Wars Rebels S03E06 "The Last Battle"

"On a salvage mission led by Captain Rex, Ezra and the gang are captured by a unit of old battle droids determined to fight one last battle to end the Clone Wars."

What I thought

I was looking forward to this from the moment I heard that there was going to be a battle droid episode. Sadly, this failed to live up to my expectations, not least because of it’s somewhat insistence to be a pun-fest of clone wars anecdotes. Then there was the far too obvious scenario that was going to materialise from the minute the Empire showed up, and that the whole episode really only dumbed down what was an absorbing Clone Wars into a couple of tactical situations that were simplistic and over quicker than two quick things. Sigh.

Te fact that a command droid and a hoard of battle droids could have still existed was plausible. Up until the moment that the war game was suggested, everything was pretty acceptable. I was looking forward to perhaps a longer drawn out battle than we got, which turned out to be a simple few waves of droids, one tactical manoeuvre and a final quick kiss and make up between former separatists and republic literally seconds before the Empire showed up. Yes, this is the cartoon effect I know, but after hearing just about every reference to the clone wars drilled out one after the other, it was quite something to accept the truce came about so easily. In hindsight, I guess both sides realised they were manipulated by the Empire but you’d think either could and should have worked that out long before this episode started! What had either side been thinking for the x number of years? Jeez.

Sure, it was satisfying to see the separatist army and republic join together to take on the Empire but it was short-lived as there appeared to be next to no droids left by then, and pretty much none left at the end thanks to the battle droids escaping shuttle being the only shuttle that got shot down. Shame the Command droid left when you’d think he’d want to be part of the rebellion and use his sophisticated battle skills once more but alas no. On the plus side we got a flashback to the clone wars in this episode which was our bread and butter once upon a time in the cartoon world. One has missed the ridiculously thick battle droid logic and their sense of humour but I do feel this episode should and could have been a tad better and maybe made a bit more of a thing about how bad and epic the clone wars was.
  • Good = Battle droids stupidity and humour is much loved. Clone War battle nostalgia.
  • Didn’t Like = Too much Clone war referencing puns, Ezra’s calling the truce, Control droid heading off alone, another young AT-AT vehicle easily taken down in what was one hell of an exercise in ESB.
Rating 6/10 (Good)

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