Star Wars: Rebels - Season 4

The nascent Rebel Alliance has failed in its operation to liberate Lothal and has been forced to retreat to its new base on Yavin IV. General Syndulla's rebel cell remains committed to liberating both Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger's homeworlds, but manpower and resources remain in short supply. Despite the apparently overwhelming might of the Empire, Ezra is determined to save his planet no matter the cost.

After four seasons and 75 episodes, Star Wars: Rebels has come to an end. The second Star Wars animated series produced under the auspices of Dave Filoni (after the well-received Clone Wars), Rebels holds the distinction of being the first piece of visual media released for the new Star Wars canon (preceding the release of The Force Awakens by a year) and also, arguably, the most consistently critically well-received part of it.

Season 4 opens with our heroes at a low ebb, having failed to retake Lothal but now motivated more strongly to help Sabine free her home planet of Mandalore. The first arc of the series focuses on Mandalore before the action moves back to Lothal, now a planet under brutal occupation with the Empire more blatantly engaged in strip-mining the world of its resources. Everything seems lost, but over the last few years Ezra has built up a large number of allies, people who owe him a favour and some unusual tricks with the Force, and now calls on every one of them to help free his world.

It's a stirring, classic Star Wars narrative, full of against-the-odds heroism, sacrifice, pulp adventure and pathos. Possibly alone out of the new-canon writers (barring maybe Lawrence Kasdan), Dave Filoni has found an excellent way of sticking to what makes Star Wars great, honouring its past and constantly coming up with new and fresh ideas to take the franchise into the future without burning down everything that went before it. The result is a genuinely interesting mix of familiar tropes and newer ideas, including the most comprehensive look at the Force and its questionable moral essentialism since the mighty Knights of the Old Republic II and Matt Stover's novels.

Being still primarily a kids' show (albeit one that adult Star Wars fans will get a lot of enjoyment from), the show doesn't get distracted too much by this stuff, but it's still good to see the universe getting fleshed out in greater depth. All of the characters get their moment to shine, especially Ezra as the mopey kid of the first season is now long gone, replaced by a mature and increasingly canny warrior who seems reluctant to fully embrace the ways of the Jedi but keen not to fall to the Dark Side either.

Continuity is also strongly pursued this season, as Filoni rounds off story arcs and character storylines stretching back to The Clone Wars. He doesn't get too self-indulgent in this, remembering that Rebels is primarily about its own cast of characters, but it's good to see long-standing storylines left dangling for many years finally wrapped up, sometimes tragically. But the focus is on our main cast of characters and the fact that they have to pass through the darkest moments possible before finding the light.

Complaints about this season are few. The awkward continuity of the show - which at one point has no less than three Light Side Force-users (technically not Jedi, but the distinction is thin) running around doing stuff for the Rebel Alliance less than a year before the events of A New Hope, but somehow no-one ever mentioned it to Luke - is still a bit unconvincing and the show's depiction of Grand Admiral Thrawn remains only a pale shadow of the Machiavellian, much more complex character of Timothy Zahn's novels. The "honourable rogue smuggler" archetype is also a bit worn out at this point, and having two such characters (Hondo and Vizago) playing major roles in the final season makes this a bit too obvious. Oh, and the loth-wolves becoming very major players in the final season comes a bit out of nowhere.

But beyond those minor issues, the fourth and final season of Star Wars: Rebels (****½) gives our band of heroes a worthy send-off and the hint that, some day, their adventures may continue (which sounds far-fetched until you realise a new Clone Wars series is indeed on the way). The season is available now in the UK (DVD, Blu-Ray) and USA (DVD, Blu-Ray).

Star Wars: Rebels - Season 3

The crew of the Ghost, now full members of the Rebel Alliance, continue to wreak havoc on the Galactic Empire's forces in the Lothal sector. With the situation critical, the cunning master-strategist Grand Admiral Thrawn arrives to take charge of the situation and soon proves himself to be a formidable opponent to the rebels.

The third season of Star Wars: Rebels continues to darken and deepen the story. The first season featured the rebels getting into knockabout adventures against the Empire; Season 2 was a considerably more complex story about war, betrayal and sacrifice, ending in a bruising confrontation between Darth Vader and his former apprentice Ahsoka Tano. Season 3 goes further down this road, focusing on Ezra as he struggles between his loyalty to Kanan and the Light Side of the Force and the promise of answers to his questions provided by an ancient Sith holocron. Unfortunately, the vengeful Maul is also searching for the holocron, believing it will lead him to the hiding place of his nemesis, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Season 3 is divided between several storylines: Kanan and Ezra's further explorations of the Force (complicated by their meeting with a follower of the neutral path between light and dark); Maul's search for Obi-Wan; the defence of the rebel base; and Grand Admiral Thrawn's relentless search for the rebels as well as the ongoing occupation of Lothal. There is also a further exploration of the theme of family: Sabine spends part of the season working to win her family's support for a Mandalorian uprising against the Empire and Hera likewise plots to free her homeworld of Ryloth, aided by her father and his supporters. The family of the Ghost is also put through the wringer, split up several times before regrouping.

There's a lot of fanservice this season. Wedge Antilles and Mon Mothma are introduced as recurring character and Saw Gerrera (from The Clone Wars and Rogue One) also returns. But the fan-pleasing cameos are in service to the story and secondary to our main characters. It's good to see that the "Ezra is tempted by the Dark Side" plot is both briefer and less angst-ridden than it could have been, with less musing on whether Ezra could really fall to the Dark Side (as the show's main character, we know he won't) and more on Ezra's character and how he approaches the Force, particularly when contrasted to Maul.

It is good to see the Maul storyline come to an end in a manner that is very appropriate. George Lucas's decision to resurrect Darth Maul on The Clone Wars was questionable in its plausibility but there's no denying that the stories it generated (on both shows) have been pretty interesting, helped by Sam Witwer's inspired vocal performance. Maul's storyline climaxes with the return of an Alec Guinness-era Obi-Wan Kenobi one of the most elegant (and smartest) lightsabre clashes seen in the franchise.

The real talking point of the season, however, is the arrival of Grand Admiral Thrawn in the new Star Wars canon. Thrawn was previously the starring antagonist of the Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command) which kicked off the entire old Expanded Universe. Well-written by Timothy Zahn, Thrawn's intelligence and lack of insane raving (he was more deeply amoral and ruthless than outright evil) made him a fascinating enemy. Many fans cite him as their favourite Star Wars villain, or indeed character overall. His Rebels incarnation is not quite as Machiavellian as the book version, but he is well-voiced by Lars Mikkelsen (whose brother Mads also appeared in Rogue One) and proves a formidable opponent for our heroes to fight.

Overall, the season tackles multiple storylines on different planets and delving both deep into Star Wars lore and canon as well as developing its own, original creations, all to great effect.

The third season of Star Wars: Rebels (****½) unfolds well and ends with an appropriate epic confrontation between the Empire and the rebels which dovetails into the fourth and final season. The season is available now in the UK (DVD, Blu-Ray) and USA (DVD, Blu-Ray).

Star Wars: Rebels - Season 2

The Lothal rebels have been inducted into the Rebel Alliance by their handler Fulcrum, now revealed to be former Jedi padawan Ahsoka Tano. Both Tano and Kanan take an interest in the training of young Force-wielder Ezra Bridger, who continues to have his doubts about his future path. Meanwhile, Darth Vader arrives on Lothal to take direct charge of the hunt for the rebels and former clone troopers come out of hiding to join the fight...but it's unclear on what side.

The first season of Star Wars: Rebels was a modest success, setting up the crew of the starship Ghost and sending them into battle against the Galactic Empire. Aimed at a marginally younger audience than the preceding animated show, The Clone Wars, Rebels' debut season featured plenty of knockabout adventures and some great space battles. At the end of the first season, however, the series took a slightly darker turn with a number of supporting characters massacred and the stakes being raised.

The second season continues in this vein. The opening episodes take no prisoners either, killing off another major supporting character and setting our characters up against Vader (who, in full Rogue One mode, makes mincemeat of them and their fleet). As the season continues, the rebels retreat from Lothal, undertaking other missions further afield (but with occasional visits home), but Ahsoka becomes increasingly intrigued by Vader and sets out to find who he really is...which, of course, we know is a really bad idea.

The second season of Rebels does several things. It's a darker, more ruthless season within certain bounds (this is still a kids show). It has incredible visual design and some really memorable moments, such as Kanan, disguised as a stormtrooper, going into battle with a lightsabre (confusing everyone) and a nerve-shreddingly tense game of cat-and-mouse between an Old Republic walker and three AT-ATs in a sandstorm. The show also gets more of a sense of continuity, with characters and storylines recurring from The Clone Wars, helping to address some of the loose ends left behind by that show's abrupt cancellation. Although welcome for Clone Wars fans, it is problematic for those who haven't seen that series: Darth Maul showing up is extremely random for those who hadn't seen his (somewhat implausible) resurrection on the older series. Some people may argue that Rebels, supposedly a stand-alone show, has been hijacked a bit by Clone Wars storylines in Season 2 to the detriment of its own characters.

However, I don't really buy that. All of the characters get their moment in the sun, such as an Enemy Mine-riffing episode with Zeb and Callus working together to escape an ice moon and a strong storyline for Sabine as she explores her Mandalorian heritage. There's also a frankly brilliant story featuring Chopper (the Ghost's psychotic-but-loyal astromech droid) as he winds up on an imperial starship, joins forces with the ship's officious manifest droid and kills a whole bunch of bad guys. In one of the best episodes of the season we also get some much-needed development for Hera as she test-drives the prototype B-wing (later seen - all too briefly - in Return of the Jedi).

But underlying the whole season is the sense of a ticking clock as Ashsoka closes in on Vader's true identity. There's a paradox hidden in Rebels' premise, namely that we know that Luke is the only Jedi to work with the Rebel Alliance in the films, so something has to happen to Ahsoka, Kanan and Ezra before the timeframe of the movies is reached, and that clock is ticking. Events in the second season culminate in a showdown between Ahsoka and Vader in a Sith temple, and a brutal and bruising lightsabre fight with an epic ending which leaves many storylines ripe for exploration in the third season.

The first season of Star Wars: Rebels was good. The second season (****½) ups that to excellent, with few weak moments and some much-improved visuals, writing and characterisation. It also lays pipe for Rogue One, with the starships the Ghost crew steal in one episode being used in that movie to bring down a Star Destroyer. Overall, an excellent slice of pulp SF fun. It is available now in the UK (DVD, Blu-Ray) and USA (DVD, Blu-Ray).

Star Wars: Rebels - Season 1

Fifteen years after the end of the Clone Wars and the rise of Emperor Palpatine, the planet Lothal is under the grip of the Galactic Empire. Petty thief Ezra reluctantly joins forces with group of rebels operating from the freighter Ghost. Their mission is to disrupt Imperial activity in the Lothal system...unaware that they are just one of many cells fighting the Empire across the galaxy.

When Disney took over Lucasfilm in 2012, they rather abruptly cancelled the animated series The Clone Wars and requested that a new show be created to tie in with the "classic" Star Wars movies. Producer Dave Filoni and his team at Lucasfilm Animation could have phoned in some new kiddy's show, but instead took the experience and expertise gained on five-and-a-half years of The Clone Wars and applied them to the new project.

Rebels is the result. Beginning four years before the events of A New Hope, this new show has a "classic" Star Wars set-up, with a bunch of mis-matched renegades coming together on a cool spaceship to stick it to the Empire. The new characters are familiar archetypes: Ezra is the young, inexperienced thief; Kanan is the more experienced mentor figure; Hera is the professional, cool pilot and mercenary; Sabine is the slightly offbeat and hippy-ish expert Mandalorian marksman; Zeb is the blustering muscle; and Chopper is the irascible and unusually violent astromech droid. But they're well-drawn with some great voice acting and impressive character depth. When it comes to "misfit crew sticking it to The Man" stories, Rebels certainly fills the void left by Firefly and the Tales of the Ketty Jay novels.

It's also good that Rebels takes a very different approach to The Clone Wars. The Clone Wars was an anthology series, drawing on stories from across the entire galaxy and different periods in time. This was effective, but it also meant that some characters showed up once and were never seen again, or that ongoing character development was sometimes interrupted for half a season or longer as the focus moved elsewhere. Rebels is a tightly-serialised drama, with each episode following on from the previous one and even early-season, stand-alone stories are eventually revealed as tying into the main story arc in unexpected ways. Even minor villains get some pretty decent development.

There is a slightly different visual design to The Clone Wars and the show's first couple of episodes do feel like they are being aimed at a younger audience. But the show matures quite quickly and it's not long before more interesting stories are being told about the nature of good and evil. A scene where Grand Moff Tarkin shows up and "clears house" of the incompetent Imperial officers who've been repeatedly humiliated by our heroes is quite startling. The producers also don't hold back on some of the more morally questionable decisions taken by the Ghost crew: one scene where a jealous Chopper "kills" another droid in a fit of jealousy after the crew start praising him is both mildly disturbing and easily the funniest Star Wars scene in decades.

The stories flow quite nicely, there's some excellent action set-pieces and some amusing comedic moments. The conclusion of this first season also ties the series in better with both The Clone Wars and the movies, setting the scene for larger events to come.

The first season of Star Wars: Rebels (****) is thoroughly enjoyable for Star Wars fans of all ages. It is available now in the UK (DVD, Blu-Ray) and USA (DVD, Blu-Ray).