Featured TV on DVD Review: Star Wars: Rebels: Season Four
August 28, 2018
Star Wars: Rebels: Season Four - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Star Wars: Rebels was the final season of the show, which means its DVD / Blu-ray release is a bittersweet occasion. Is it a good end to the show? And does the two-disc set have enough extras to be worth picking up?
Unlike a lot of animated shows, this one has a continuing storyline, or to be more accurate, a few of them. There are a few two-part episodes as part of the season’s 16-episodes, but there are also a couple of arcs that take up multiple episodes without officially being two-parters. Because of this, it is impossible really get far into the plot summary without spoilers.
The season starts right in the middle of the action. Oh boy, is that an understatement. They jump into the action without so much of a “Previously on...” and I had to pause the first episode at about the five-minute mark, just to make sure I didn’t put in disc two by mistake. We start on Mandalore, with Sabine Wren leading a mission to rescue her father. Her spies have told her he’s being held in an isolated citadel awaiting execution. Ezra Bridger, a con artist turned Jedi, isn’t so sure her intelligence is accurate and worries that this is a trap. He’s not the only one that is sceptical. It turns out he’s right, but it makes sense that Sabine would be willing to try anything to save her father. While they don’t manage to rescue anyone, they are not captured, thanks to last minute backup from Bo-Katan Kryze, who should be rightful ruler of Mandalore. A second attempt at a rescue works, but it is a short celebration. While Sabine is talking to her mother, Ursa Wren, who led the diversion part of their plan, she hears a weapon over the coms and tells her mother to get out of there. Her mother is spared, but the weapon kills almost all of the other Rebels. Worse still, Sabine recognized the sound of the weapon, because she’s the one who created it. Now she has to destroy it before more people are killed.
Up next is another two-parter, In the Name of the Rebellion, but the main story arc for our heroes has them going to Lothal, Ezra’s home world, where the Empire is designing and building an improved Tie Defender. At first Ezra is excited to see his homeworld again, but that feeling quickly turns to horror when he sees what the Empire has done. This hits major spoilers rather quickly, so I’ll end the plot summary there.
By the fourth season, the writers and the cast really knew these characters, so the writing and acting is top-notch. I also really like Thawn as the recurring villain. Thawn is one of the few parts of the Star Wars Extended Universe that really deserved to be brought back for the new Star Wars continuity. There are some really heartbreaking moments in the season and it is a really emotionally satisfying ending.
Disc one has an audio commentary track on the two-part season premiere, as well as Rebels Recon, which are five-minute episode recaps. Disc two has audio commentary tracks on four episodes, as well as more Rebels Recons. Ghosts of Legend is a multipart, 28-minute long look at the series. Force of Rebellion is another multipart, 15-minute look at the force as depicted throughout the series. This is a great selection of extras for an animated TV show.
Star Wars: Rebels: Season Four is a great end to a series that really grew over its four years. I really hope there are more Star Wars animated shows coming, because they’ve done a great job on them so far. Additionally, the DVD and the Blu-ray have enough extras that it is easily worth picking up.
The Show
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Star Wars, Katee Sackhoff, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Taylor Gray, Tiya Sircar, Lars Mikkelsen