Star Wars Rebels (Season 4)

Star Wars Rebels has a really messy series, with high highs and low lows. So it only seems natural that it gets a final season that works for the series on some levels and feels a bit baffling on other levels.

Unlike the last two seasons, Season 4 is focused on a single storyline, with the main cast of rebels returning to Lothal in an attempt to save it on their own. Despite seeing them spend their time with the larger rebellion these last two seasons, I think it feels right for them to return to where it all began after all of their development and growth, and I actually really liked "The Occupation", which had them adjust to the empire-occupied Lothal. The focused storyline also allows for a season that's even more tightly-knit than the first, while having the much stronger writing and characters of the latter seasons. There were hardly any standalone episodes this time around, resulting in a serialized affair that feels surprisingly like a slow burn storyline. After the first two episodes tie up loose ends from Season 3, the rebels head over to Lothal and spend some time acclimating and planning out their assault. While this does mean the first half is a bit weaker, it also means that all of the plot points set-up in the first half get paid off in the much more dramatic, fast-paced, and exciting second half. And what a second half! The end of Rebels packs in so many hugely important and impactful moments like Kanan's death, Ahsoka's return, and Ezra's plan in the finale that really makes it feel like this is the end.

However, this is Rebels, so I predictably have a few big issues with the season. While I already mentioned that the first half was a bit slow, even in the generally good second half, there are some plot directions that really rubbed me the wrong way, mostly because of contrivances that even I noticed (these types of things usually don't bother me). For example, why didn't Ezra use the Purgil against the empire years ago? And how did Hera and Kanan have a kid in such a short span of time? Or why was Ahsoka so important to save if she didn't do anything in the final battle? But while most of these questions aren't that big of a deal, I need to talk about The World Between Worlds for a second. It's a time travel mechanic set up after an entire season's worth of dull Lothwolf scenes, yet it's only used once to save Ahsoka before never being mentioned again in all of Star Wars. It feels like the writers didn't know how Ahsoka could escape her fight with Vader, so they just invented time travel to save her without realizing the ramifications. I wish this wasn't that big of an issue, but so much of the season is focused on setting-up what ends up feeling like a deus ex machina, ultimately dragging down Season 4 quite a bit for me.

Still, the second half was a solid ending to the series, and it had some generally good episodes:

Jedi Night: Look, Kanan had a ton of death flags this episode, his sacrifice was very much predictable. However, I think Jedi Night was a fantastic sendoff to the character and easily one of the best episodes of the season. Kanan helping Hera escape was a lot of fun, and it gave us plenty of time to see the two of them together, and Kanan's big sacrifice at the end was incredibly impactful. 

DUME: I didn't care much about the Lothwolves stuff, but otherwise, I loved how the entire episode was about the Rebels dealing with the grief over Kanan's death. There were a lot of great individual moments, like Sabine and Zeb realizing that Kanan stopped the TIE Defenders, Chopper comforting Hera, the Ruhk fight, even Ezra being consoled by the giant wolf, I found it all incredibly emotional.   

World Between Worlds: While I have my complaints about the World Between Worlds, I do have to give credit to just how much of an audiovisual treat this episode was. The 2D black-and-white lineart looks fantastically trippy, the Jedi voices heard in the void were peak fanservice, and the big escape from Palpatine was pretty cool. I also liked Sabine's interrogation with the creepy Minister Hydan.

Family Reunion And Farewell: Aside from the Purgill reveal (which was admittedly kinda cool), this was a really great finale that definitely did right by the characters. It was tense, action-packed, and immensely rewarding. The big battle with Thrawn's fleet gave most of the cast something to do (even minor characters like Mulch and Gregor), Palpatine was implemented in a realistic and threatening manner, Ezra's sacrifice was pretty great, and the timeskip at the end was a nice bittersweet farewell to the cast. With all my gripes with the season, I think this was a strong ending for the series.

Overall, this final season of Rebels was a bit messy, with a slow start and plenty of contrivances near its end. However, I think it did the characters right, brought the conflict full circle, and packed in plenty of impactful episodes and moments in its second half.

3/5 Stars

My ranking of the Star Wars Rebels seasons is:

2 > 3 > 4 > 1

My ranking of the Star Wars Rebels finales is:

2 > 4 > 1 > 3

Favorite Episode: Trials Of The Darksaber

And finally, between Clone Wars and Rebels, I think I preferred the former. The anthology structure of Clone Wars meant that the quality of each arc was a bit of a crapshoot, but it also meant we'd get long stretches of amazing episodes, culminating in the amazing Siege Of Mandalore. I also liked the animation style better as well as everything involving the clones. On the other hand, while I preferred the serialized nature of Rebels and liked being able to focus on a small group of characters, the show was still a bit of a flawed mess, managing to be just as uneven as Clone Wars, while also having Ezra hijack nearly every single episode. I enjoyed both series and I could easily call them great, but if I had to choose, Clone Wars wins out.