2x05 Wings of the Master

7.6/10. One of those things that brought so many people into the Star Wars Universe was the ships. Whether it was X-Wings or tie-fighters or battle cruisers or blockade runners, I remember being at the elementary school lunch table while my dorky chums and I went page-by-page through a book of the different ships and designs from the original trilogy, oo-ing and aw-ing at different starfighters. So it makes sense than in a 20-episode order, Rebels takes some time out to enjoy the beauty and power of it's flying machines.

I appreciated how, beyond the sheer technical exhibition of the new blade fighter, the episode uses this as an opportunity to give Hera's backstory a little more seasoning. We already had hints that she was one of the Twi'leks freed by the Republic on Ryloth in The Clone Wars, but hearing her story about how she had an innate desire to fly, and to use her abilities and inclination to help people, while a bit cliche, is a nice way of giving her character and motivation apart from this particular struggle.

And the scene where she finally takes over the blade-wing was one of the best sequences in the show. It featured some great animation and direction of the effortless, natural flow of Hera behind the steering wheel as she blasted around in her new ride, showing the deftness and skill of both pilot and machine. The cantankerous mon calamari not wanting to give away his prized prototype ship and wanting to make sure Hera was worthy of it came off a bit rote, but overall, it worked. The same goes for the major blockade running conflict, with the stakes that felt a little perfunctory and convenient to introduce this new machinery, but which did what it needed to do to make the blade wing useful and not just a big toy.

Overall, it was a nice bit of world-building in terms of the rebel alliance and its mini-arms race with the empire, and gave some shading to Hera to boot. A nice standalone episode.