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Recap / Star Wars Rebels S2E08 "The Future of the Force"

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Kanan, Ezra, and Zeb have to protect Force-sensitive infants from being kidnapped by the Inquisitors.


Tropes in this episode:

  • Actually Pretty Funny: The Seventh Sister breaks down giggling when she and the Fifth Brother discover Ezra and Kanan sent them after a false lead, humiliating the latter.
  • Air Vent Escape: Kanan sends Ezra into the vents with Pipey while he and Zeb take a different route to distract the Inquisitors. It almost backfires when the Fifth Brother hears him clanking around in there, but Kanan shows up in time.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Just when it looks like Kanan, Ezra, and Zeb are done for, Ahsoka emerges from the hangar and takes out both Inquisitors.
  • Big Good: Fully trained Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano (though she left the order and rejected the title), curbstomps both Inquisitors, where either alone had been too much for Ezra and Kanan to handle together.
  • Bilingual Dialogue: Between Kanan and Oora.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: Though it seems like the Inquisitors are trying to silence potential witnesses to their kidnappings, they don't do a very good job of it. Both parents/guardians are left alive even though the Inquisitors have no intention of taking them, and the civilian transport they attacked is left derelict rather than outright destroyed.
  • Bullying a Dragon: The Seventh Sister does this when she laughs at the Fifth Brother's Epic Fail in tracking Pipey, which leads him to humiliate himself.
  • Call-Back: Ezra, Chopper, and Zeb all recall the mimic droids less-than-fondly from "Always Two There Are".
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Ahsoka recalls how Sidious tried to kidnap Force-sensitive infants back in the Clone Wars.
    • The Seventh Sister saying "Unexpected, but not unwelcome." is similar to Palpatine saying "A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one." in The Phantom Menace.
    • The final fight is almost Reference Overdosed:
      • Ahsoka's entrance is quite similar to when Darth Maul shows up in the hangar on Theed, before the climactic duel at the end of The Phantom Menace, including the score starting just as the blast door slides open.
      • Ahsoka’s fairly rare practice of depowering her lightsabers mid-battle to meditate then seamlessly continuing fighting is very similar to Qui-Gon in his final duel.
      • The score also has some cues from the score accompanying Sidious' duel with Darth Maul and Savage Opress late in the Clone Wars; fitting considering the set-up of the fight is very similar (a seasoned dual-wielding warrior goes up against a pair of competent, but outmatched partners).
      • The scene of Ahsoka ending the fight standing over the Seventh Sister, pointing at her and declaring that she's beaten, is almost exactly like how she ended her fight with Garnac, the Trandoshan leader in The Clone Wars Season 3 finale "Wookiee Hunt", not to mention it's what her former master, Vader, tells Luke Skywalker in the final moments of their duel on Bespin, seconds before cutting his hands off. Even her pose, one-handedly extending her saber against the downed opponent is near-identical.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Ahsoka practically dances around the Inquisitors, and it's pretty clear that if she wasn't buying the others time, the "fight" would have been over much quicker. Significantly, this is the first time in the series that one of the good guys manages to curb-stomp the Inquisitors rather than the other way around.
  • Emerging from the Shadows: Inverted with Ahsoka when she emerges from the blinding light of the hangar. Coupled with Mysterious Mist and a subdued Ethereal Choir, it's a hell of an entrance.
  • Evil-Detecting Baby: Justified. Both of the babies in question are Force-sensitive, as are their pursuers.
  • Face Death with Dignity: With the Fifth Brother blocking her escape, Alora's grandmother gives up trying to run, looks the Seventh Sister straight in the eye and tells the Inquisitor not to touch her grandchild.
  • Foreshadowing: The Seventh Sister mentions that Darth Vader would be pleased with Ahsoka's capture.
  • Funny Background Event:
    • When Zeb calls in to Kanan and Ezra about the child he found, Chopper can be seen in the background playing peek-a-boo with the child.
    • Ezra makes faces at Pipey a couple times.
  • "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Ezra grins when Ahsoka arrives.
  • How Did You Know? I Didn't: To escape from the Inquisitors, Kanan and Zeb jump out a window, landing in a passing speeder. When Zeb asks how Kanan knew the speeder would be there, Kanan says he didn't.
  • Idiot Ball: Ezra blurts out the location of the Rebel base when he leaves the hotel, despite having passed a mimic droid on the way in and having no reason to believe it won't still be there. Plus, at the time he's supposed to be getting the baby as far away from the Inquisitors as he can, not standing around and talking to the child.
  • Leave No Witnesses: Though not explicit, the transport that the Inquisitors attacked in the opening is found derelict by Ahsoka, with all the passengers and crew save the grandmother missing.
  • Little Kids Kick Shins: Ezra kicks Zeb in the shin.
  • Living Macguffin: The only role the Force-sensitive children have is being the target of the Inqusititors, who the heroes try to protect them from.
  • Negated Moment of Awesome: With Kanan and Zeb down, Ezra steps up, ignites his lightsaber . . . and gets Force-pushed out of the way.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ezra accidentally mentions the location of the Rebel base within earshot of one of the Seventh Sister's mimic droids.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • The Seventh Sister has an epic one when Ahsoka catches her lightsaber mid-swing then takes it from her.
    • Zeb has a moment when he sends the nanny droid away as a decoy only to hear the familiar sound of a lightsaber, followed by the droid's remains being thrown back into the intersection.
      Zeb: Uh-oh, that's not good.
      [Turns around to see a very pissed-off Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister. The baby cries out and both Inquisitors look round to see him]
      Zeb: That's really not good.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: During Ahsoka's duel against the Inquisitors.
  • Power Nullifier: Ahsoka's shown being able to deactivate a lightsaber with the Force.
  • Psycho Smirk: The Seventh Sister has one on her face when one of her probe droids returns, having recorded Ezra saying exactly where the rebel base is.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: When the departing civilian ship is tractor-beamed by the Star Destroyer, the pilot protests they were given clearance to leave. The Seventh Sister slams him into a wall and tells him it's been cancelled.
  • Shock Wave Clap: When Ahsoka slammed the Seventh Sister into a stone pillar, she didn't actually use the usual armthrust associated with a powerful Force-push: she just clapped her hands together.
  • Shout-Out: The baby Alora is a nod to Elora, the baby from Lucasfilm's fantasy film Willow.
  • Slasher Smile:
    • The Seventh Sister displays one to Alora's grandmother just before directing the Fifth Brother to kill everybody aboard.
    • The Fifth Brother gives one himself upon turning round to see Zeb holding the baby the Inquisitors are looking for.
  • Smug Snake: Exhibited by the Seventh Sister's little smirk when her droid shows up having heard Ezra say where the rebel base is.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Inverted, as it's the Algorithm of Good. Ezra can't stand against either Inquisitor. Kanan can stand against one, but not both, and Ahsoka gives them both a Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • Super-Reflexes: Ahsoka's fast enough to catch the hilt of the Seventh Sister's spinning lightsaber.
  • Tempting Fate: The grandmother assures her grandchild that they'll be safe now that they're off the planet. Cue a Star Destroyer seizing the ship and the Inquisitors boarding it.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Ahsoka was frequently on the receiving end of The Worf Effect on The Clone Wars. This episode has her first fight on Rebels, and she utterly stomps both Inquisitors.
  • The Triple:
    Zeb: Garazeb Orelios — honoured soldier, feared rebel, baby hunter.
  • Tyke Bomb: The Inquisitors kidnap Force-sensitive children at a young age, because they believe the children are young enough for the Empire to subvert to their cause. All this to ensure future Jedi will never rise to challenge the Empire.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Ahsoka finds the grandmother alive on the civilian transport, but she isn't seen again after this point.
  • The Worf Effect:
    • Kanan, Zeb and Ezra are all hopelessly outmatched by the two Inquisitors who are fighting them together.
    • The Inquisitors also find themselves on the receiving end when they're faced with Ahsoka (who's a subversion of this trope herself, after being played straight in much of The Clone Wars).
  • Would Hurt a Child:
    • Taking Chopper's Comedic Sociopathy to somewhat chilling levels, he appeared to be perfectly willing to blow-up the TIEs with one of the Force-sensitive infants aboard. Subverted later, when he's shown to be quite good with children. Could possibly be an off-color attempt at sarcasm as we don’t hear Chopper's tone, just Zeb's horrified reaction.
    • Upon realising Ezra and Pipey are in the air ducts, the Fifth Brother wastes no time in trying to get at them with his lightsaber.


 
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Visiting Rebel Scum on Garel..

Ezra Bridger reveals the Rebel's base of operations to one of the Seventh Sister's ID9 seeker droids, which the Inquistor happily accepts...

How well does it match the trope?

4.89 (9 votes)

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Main / NiceJobBreakingItHero

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