What was cool was that it was a big visual tie-in to that first movie, while also being a big episode for two characters from completely different parts of Star Wars – the Rebels-created Kanan and The Clone Wars’ Captain Rex. Because the dramatic crux of the episode was the strained relationship between these two reluctant allies and how Kanan would finally make a big decision during a moment of truth, risking himself to go back and rescue Rex. And yeah, maybe he didn’t need to call him “friend” just yet (that felt a bit much), but the decision itself spoke volumes.Along the way, we got some cool touches too, including some funny, meta-y moments that noted things fans have long mentioned about Stormtroopers – namely that they rarely aim well and their armor never seems to actually protect them. Having Kanan and Rex’s dialogue acknowledge both of these things was a humorous touch that also gave some in-universe acknowledgement to these long-cemented bits of Star Wars history. And obviously tying so much of it to Rex specifically was great, as he got to gripe, essentially, about how these Stormtrooper kids just couldn’t hold a candle to the Clone Troopers – which actually has been the case when comparing Star Wars canon up until now. (We’ll see how the First Order Stormtroopers do very soon!)
Also great were many of the action beats, including Ezra igniting his lightsaber while it hung on that Stormtroopers belt and a moment that was both cool and kind of macabre when you think about it, as Kanan used the Vorce to pull Stormtroopers out of hiding and into Rex’s sights so he could shoot them. And as The Clone Wars proved, there’s a lot of awesome moments that can be included when gravity is turned off, as we saw briefly here when Chopper sent Ezra and those Imperials’ into the air, while their fight continued.
