The third season of Rebels wraps up this Saturday with ‘Zero Hour.’ It’ll debut Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. ET/PT, with repeats at 5:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m., 10:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m.
More stills under the cut.
Rebels takes out season 3 with ‘Zero Hour’
I am torn between anticipation and dread that I better not live through The Last Command 2.0. I like the logic that the rebels have to lose hard here since ANH established that stealing the plans is their first major victory, ergo they can’t actually win the battle here, but there’s still the question of removing Thrawn from the main action somehow. Seriously, these characters are not worth him getting killed off. (Side note: if we’re supposed to care for any other reason than knowing she has to live to see ROTJ, can Mon Mothma do something interesting? Making good speeches is not inspiring. Hitler could do that. Bringing people coffee is not inspiring. Being a worrying control freak in TTT was more interesting, speaking of characters better-written there. At least it’s proactive.)
And I’m beginning to fear that Kallus is doomed (and with him my dreams of a Zeb-Kallus-Chopper vitriolic buddy comedy spin off. Come on, that would be awesome. They roam the galaxy on missions for the rebels, snarking at each other along the way!) He gets busted, he’s never really shown much real remorse for things he did BESIDES being on Lasat when shit went down (and there only because he decides he and Zeb aren’t so different.) I mean,he opened the show killing one of his own men for making an ill-timed joke, and he set up Minister Tua to be blown up. Sure, she was a traitor, but overkill much? And they didn’t exactly pick an unsympathetic fall guy for him to deliberately set up. Kallus had to know that if Thrawn and Yularen bought the notion that Lyste was Fulcrum, he’d be killed. If he’d set up Pryce or Konstantin or Slavin or Titus, okay, they’re all jerks, incompetent, or incompetent jerks, no one’s going to be feeling much sympathy. They picked pretty much must the most mild-mannered, well-intentioned fall guy available for him to throw under the bus. None of that really bodes well. If anything I’d be a little concerned if they thought ‘But I sent some messages and stuff so now I’m a good person and setting up someone to be wrongly killed is totes fine if you’re a Rebel.”
Thrawn doesn’t need to go. If he’s still around during the OT, it’s not really a big deal: they can just have him off in the Outer Rim again.
What I’m curious about, post-Twin Suns, is if they’re going to continue winnowing down the Force-sensitives. It’s getting to be time, and if this episode is an actual battle it can’t be one they win big. I think (most) of the non-Force users are probably safe. Hera and Chopper, obviously, are around for Rogue One. Sabine will probably make it. (I can’t recall if they give her piece in Propaganda a firm timeline.) There’s no reason to get rid of Zeb, and if they need one there’s always that hidden planet of his fellow Lasat.
I’m still not totally discounting that “season four” may end up being a relaunch/rebranding of the series. Ezra may be the focus point of Rebels, but if it becomes Rebellion with Hera and Sabine instead…
I personally have not a single horse in this race – I’m not emotionally attached to anyone on this show. But I am curious. They played the vague card with Ahsoka, but I don’t think they can do that with Kanan or Ezra. On the other hand, I don’t know how much leeway they have to really kill a character in kid’s programming. (Remembering how AtLA S3 danced around the word ‘kill’ re: Ozai.) But it’s war, and the Rebels don’t win much until Rogue One. Something has to happen, but there are still 2 years or so to RO/ANH…