With “Gathering Forces” ended, we are at the halfway point in the season for Rebels and will be taking a break from our regular articles for the next few weeks as the show takes a holiday hiatus. In the meantime, let’s look back at what the show has done in its short time on the air to this point, what worked well and what can be improved.

Rebels has done a number of things well in its first half, but the one that stands out is characterization and character development. Ezra began the show as a loner, only out for himself, and has turned into an enthusiastic and altruistic Jedi apprentice, albeit one with secrets still coming to light, just taking his first steps into a larger world and dealing with the temptations of the dark side and the ramifications of his own bitterness and anger. Kanan started as much more “cowboy” and little “Jedi”, a practical and cynical man focused on damaging the Empire however possible, and through teaching Ezra has begun to rediscover a more mature, spiritual side buried in the years he spent living on the run. Sabine’s surface persona as a bubbly, art-obsessed teenager hides a deeper intelligence and pain, a multilingual Imperial Academy student who left the Empire to live as a rebel for reasons we have yet to see. Zeb is gruff and unfriendly, driven by his peoples’ deaths at the hands of the Empire, but also warms to his comrades and treats Ezra like a little brother or nephew. Hera is the one holding the group together, but even she has things she does not tell everyone, including the identity of their supplier and contact Fulcrum. And these examples only cover the main cast. Read More

Mike: Last week Ben talked about Rebels‘ efforts to begin laying the groundwork for its “big picture” story. In addition to Fulcrum, though, another character with a lot of potential to expand the show’s horizons is Brent Spiner’s Gall Trayvis—an Imperial Senator who appears to be actively undermining the Empire’s authority via rogue HoloNet transmissions. Like Fulcrum, though, his efforts haven’t been entirely helpful to our heroes, and his true motives remain unclear.

Another element “Out of Darkness” and “Empire Day” have in common is the delicate peeling back of the curtain obscuring the main characters’ backstories; Sabine’s in the former and now Ezra’s in the latter. The latest episode “reveals” Ezra’s parents for the first time, by name, voice, and deed if not by sight. For those of us who were lucky enough to see “Empire Day” online, the past week has produced lots of speculation regarding the identities and fates of Ephraim and Mira Bridger; some suspect that Ephraim might be a rogue clonetrooper, while the timing of Ezra’s birth and his high Force-sensitivity also leave room (though not much) for him to be the child of a Jedi. Read More