Friday, February 12, 2016

Star Wars Rebels S2 - Episode 14: Nice, Quick Story

Friday, the day where Star Wars Rebels becomes available for me to watch. Though this fourteenth episode of Rebels, The Call, could be seen as an average filler or a one-off story, it was quite nicely directed with the story involving intergalactic whales and zero-atmosphere fights. Spoilers, intentional or otherwise, follow.


The episode starts out, quite able to be identified as a filler, cold in the Ghost. Hera and the crew had to conserve fuel on this journey to take over a fuel refinery for the Phoenix Squadron. 

But then Ezra alone hears a whale-like voice. and behold:


Purrgils. Strange name, I know. Interesting creature designs, the shape of the whale and reminds us of the manta-like creatures from not far off the start of Star Wars the Clone Wars.

I just want to point out several points here. The first one being, those whales should not live due to lack of respiration.

Biology aside, another thing that bothers me is how much hate Hera shows to those creatures due to several accidents with them that killed some of her friends. At least to me, this just introduces a conflict that is unrelated at all to the main show, and it will indeed be quickly resolved, in a detached manner from the rest of the story. Typical Star Wars Rebels.


After that, two funky-looking TIE fighters come in and attack, but are dispatched quickly. Sabine immediately tracked those fighters into a planetoid.

And a fascinating planetoid, at that.


The refinery they were looking for happens to be beside a crater of glowing gas. Beautiful scenery awaits, I thought.


Then Ezra, Kanan, Sabine, and Chopper jumped. to the refinery. Cool sky-(space-?)diving. Though I could comment on the physics. I digress.


Thus, as predicted, their stealth strike turned ugly when they were spotted. Things did calm down for a moment, and the Ghost lands on a platform, however when reinforcements arrive and Ezra got knocked off to the gas, their predicament turned awry.



Now just wait a second in this scene. This has some flaws. First of all, what the heck is the composition of the gas so that Ezra could breathe in it?

Oh there I go again. Well, the other flaw is this gives us a dumb explanation of whatever Ezra experienced with the whale sound since the start. Why did only he could hear the purrgils? If it is force related, why could Kanan not? And what are the thoughts of those whales? Just an unclear explanation, for me.

Though for one, that blue glow of the gas is quite mystical and nice and plays with lighting, showing off the Rebels animation.


Though the next scene was epic in its own right. Ezra, riding a whale in space with lightsaber on. Never saw that before in Star Wars. The purrgils then helped the rebels. Very predictable end.


Though the ending scene is fascinating. Those purrgils charged up with bands of light to travel to hyperspace... which reminds me however perfect our science, Star Wars just makes them better. At least for the imagination.

There we go, a nice and quick story. Albeit a generic one, with several unexplainable and unnecessary plot, predictable like any other Rebels episodes in the middle of a season. Oh well, at least we got to see some fascinating clips and creatures here.


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Star Wars Rebels is a series by Disney Lucasfilms.

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