Reviews Of Blah: Star Wars Rebels S03E12 & S03E13 "Ghosts of Geonosis"

Synopsis

The crew returns to Geonosis in search of a missing rebel team.

What I thought

Well, what did we learn from these episodes that we didn’t already know? Really, it was very little. We already knew the Geonosians were wiped out by the Empire through piecing together the pieces of the puzzle. There was, however, confirmation of that although none of that evidence made it back to the Alliance or Senate. Interesting that politics was brought into this. I guess it was somewhat typical that at least one native survived, and a queen egg. I’d assume it wouldn’t take too long for a decent number of Geonosians to get born, given their numbers previously suggest a very high birth-rate. The main thing I expected to happen this episode didn’t; I was convinced Saw would do something courageous to save everyone and end up getting infected by the gas that the Empire used on the planet. That would have gone on to explain his breathing apparatus in Rogue One, but alas that didn’t happen. So, in all, there was little new material learned here. Even though the surviving Geonosian drew out the Death Star twice for the Rebels in the sand, they didn’t pick up on the hint, and who can blame them? We know what he was on about but they would not be thinking about a massive planet sized weapon. I really aren’t sure exactly what Clink Clink's (Ezra's name for the Geonosian) motives were in this episode towards the Rebels. Sure, he was protecting the egg, hence the shield and battle droids, but why would he tell them anything? I guess the destruction of his race might be a motivation reason. I was surprised no one spoke Geonosian though, especially Rex. It never was much of a problem in the movies although I guess not everyone can speak other languages.

Thank goodness they showed the two episodes together on Disney XD, because it would have been soul destroying to have to wait a week between them. The ending of part 1 wasn’t really much of a set-up for anything anyway, what with them having just found the native and Saw mouthing off. So, it’s kudos for having them on the same day in order to maintain the flow and the little tension that the episode just about managed to build up.

This was an enjoyable return trip to Geonosis with the usual gang, plus Rex, in tow, which revisited numerous Clone War references, not least with the return of Saw Gerrera, battle droids (yes, they are still about), one remaining native and of course the actual planet of Geonosis itself. The visuals were stunning: the gloomy caves, sandstorms, and towering deep casam. After the first season of Rebels, I never thought I’d be praising it for it’s detailed scenery, but as said before, it’s really ramped that up in recent times. Geonosis looks beautiful, even though it’s just rocks and tunnels. We also got to see both sides of Saw Gerrera's nature and lots more of him than in Rogue One! He was brilliantly played this episode. His determination to get results no matter what was very convincing and that he still had a little part of humanely in him to not destroy the egg. I feel somewhat that it wasn’t quite fully explained why they couldn’t have taken Clink Clink with them and protected him and the egg, as they’d most likely have someone who speaks Geonosian who could talk to Clink Clink. With the Empire attacking them, how’d they think Clink Clink would be safer on the planet that the Empire eradicated?

Lots of rebels kicked some serious ass this week; Sabine taking out Rocket Troopers (wait? When did these become a thing) in a nanosecond, but why did the Imperial Commander send in troopers? Kanan showed advanced force abilities by holding up a massive rock ledge for Rex and Saw to cross a chasm. And Hera was really dynamic and performed dramatic piloting of the ship down the tunnel and then helping take out the Imperial freighter on exit. I had so many flashbacks to Empire Strikes Back during this section, as well as A New Hope when the gang had to cross the ledge.

So, overall, really enjoyable, but doesn’t get a higher rating as there was nothing really revolutionary discovered here, but then, there couldn’t be given we know how the story goes. I think we got almost everything we could have done out of this story arc but I would have loved for just a little more.

Rating 7/10

What I liked: Awesome Saw Gerrera, Kanan’s advanced force abilities, Rocket Troopers cool, Geonosian scenery, Hera’s captaincy action. Mention of the Senate.

What I didn’t like: Rocket Troopers? Why send them in? Bit easily taken out. There was very little actually learnt that we didn’t know already. No-one speaks Geonosian?