Chris Cooper reviews the fifth episode of Star Wars Rebels season 2…
Last week’s episode was pretty heavy, full of lightsabers and force use. It ended on quite the downer too.
Brothers of the Broken Horn is a pretty great response; entertaining, funny, and shows the improvement Ezra is making in his skills.
Once again Rebels uses a character from The Clone Wars, but Honda is introduced well enough that no previous knowledge is required. Star Wars loves a good scoundrel and he fits the bill nicely.
The Ezra/Rex/Kanan tension builds in a different way this time, with the two adults seemingly not understanding the pressure they’re putting the youngster under. He’s not a Jedi or a soldier yet, and is buckling under the assumption that he’ll be either. The end result is the same – Ezra running off – but this story avoids it coming off as repetitive.
The first half was a bit slow, but it was well worth sticking with it. Ezra is becoming a very handy kid, using a mixture of both his training and pre-Ghost life to good effect. If it were just non-force using enemies he came up against each week he’d clean up!
Special mention must be made of Chopper this week too. I can’t say why, but he does something I don’t think I’ve seen a droid do before and it was very cool.
I still want to see more of Sabine and Hera, though at least I’ve had ‘A New Dawn’ to give me more on the Ghost’s mother figure. Bar a colour change there’s been very little for Sabine yet. The trailer for Season 2 promises some focus on her, I just hope they give her enough time to grow. For everything Rebels is doing right, it’s seriously underplaying one gender.
Overall though this is another good episode in what is a shaping up to be a great season.
Chris Cooper is a Flickering Myth Staff Writer, and owner of the blog Super Duper Stuff. Follow him on Twitter @SDCCooper or visit the blog’s Facebook page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=W04aXcyQ0NQ
Originally published November 5, 2015. Updated November 7, 2019.
