The second half of Forces of Destiny’s second season went up on YouTube over the last week. As a 26-year-old male, I am definitely not the show’s target demographic but as a huge fan of Star Wars I still try to watch this show when new episodes release. As this is the first batch of episodes to release since the site was fully established, I thought it would be good to quickly give my verdict on the new episodes. If people like this let me know and I will go back over Season 1 and the earlier episodes of Season 2.
Episode 9: Chopper and Friends
When Hera takes the Ghost to deal with a couple of leftover TIE fighters above Endor, Chopper brings onboard the Ewoks Wicket and Kneesaa to act as gunners.
This is clearly an episode designed for the enjoyment of children, with the use of the Ewoks as the heroes. Honestly, the Ewoks are the main reason Return of the Jedi drops so low on my film rankings, so this was never going to be an episode that I would be shouting praise about. That said, I like how they have brought Kneesaa into canon (she was previously a part of the Legends show Star Wars: Ewoks) and it is another nice little reminder along with Shattered Empire and the campaign for Star Wars Battlefront II that the battle on and around the moon of Endor was not over the moment the Death Star II was destroyed.
Episode 10: Monster Misunderstanding
Queen Amidala attempts to discover why a Sando Aqua monster is attacking the Naboo docks.
We’ve had so little canon content set before Attack of the Clones so I was really happy to see this episode. The plot was extremely basic and made the Palace Guards appear a bit simple, but it is nice to see another moment with Padmé as Queen Amidala. It was mentioned in Attack of the Clones that Padmé was such a popular ruler, the Naboo wanted her to stay on beyond her 2 terms as queen, it is nice to get some content showing us why she was so popular (other than saving the planet during the Invasion of Naboo). Part of me does wish though that Captain Panaka had appeared in this episode along with Padmé as we know he was her personal bodyguard at this time.
Episode 11: Art History
Sabine and Tristan take a detour during a covert mission on Mandalore to remove the Imperial presence from a historic monument.
As a huge fan of Sabine and the Mandalorian warriors, I really enjoyed this episode! It was nice to get some more interaction between Sabine and her brother, and we got some really funny lines from this Episode. As well as being a fun story, it also adds to the history of Mandalore with the statue of Tarre Vizsla, who is a former leader of Mandalore but also the first Mandalorian Jedi and creator of the Darksaber. These little hints in Forces of Destiny and Rebels make me wonder if they are leading towards a canon story following Tarre Vizsla, perhaps the live action TV show or one of the upcoming sets of films will be set on Mandalore (yes please!)
Episode 12: Porgs!
Chewbacca continues to have issues fixing the Millennium Falcon due to the influence of a pair of porgs.
Sorry Ash Crossan, but this is just too much porg-ness for me! The porgs are the Ewoks of the Sequel Trilogy to me, yet without the story impact, so to see them feature so heavily in this episode was hard for me. In The Last Jedi I can just about cope with them other than the scene with Chewie at the camp fire, but unfortunately this episode is very much in that vein. I’m also not a fan of how much emotion and happiness we see from Chewie in this episode considering we get much more expressive facial features in the films. To the target demographic, this was probably a wonderful episode, but it’s not one I’d watch again in a hurry.
Episode 13: Perilous Pursuit
Rey and Finn work together to evade Stormtroopers during a snowspeeder chase over Starkiller Base.
This was a great little episode in my opinion. We can see the chemistry between Rey and Finn and how when they work together they use each other’s strengths (Rey’s piloting, Finn’s shooting). One of the deleted scenes from The Force Awakens saw a snowspeeder chase with Rey and Finn working together against Stormtroopers, so it is nice to see this adapted for this show. It makes me wonder if other deleted scenes could be adapted for canon in later seasons of the show. I’d love to see the scenes between Luke and Biggs on Tatooine shown in a similar way.
Episode 14: Traps and Tribulations
Wicket and Kneesaa need Luke and Leia to help them reset their traps before they are put in danger.
Another Ewok episode, but as they were not the main focus of this one I did not mind as much. Much like bringing in Kneesa, it was nice to see the Gorax brought back from Legends in this episode, and it also gives a canon explanation for the traps used against the Empire – they were actually to use against the Gorax! It was also nice to see Leia using Luke’s lightsaber as a reminder that she is force-sensitive too, though I was not such a big fan of Luke’s final line asking for his weapon back.
Episode 15: A Disarming Lesson
Ahsoka teaches Ezra a lesson about the importance of his lightsaber when she attacks him as he is training.
Over the years I have become a huge fan of Ahsoka so I was always going to enjoy an episode that showed Ahsoka as a mentor. Ahsoka learned a lot of lesson during the Clone Wars and following Order 66, so to see her giving Ezra a different lesson in the importance of self not just a lesson was great to see and I couldn’t help wonder if she was passing on a lesson that her own master Anakin had taught her. Ezra was always my least favourite of the crew of the Ghost but I did enjoy moments where he would learn to grow as a Jedi and I think this plays nicely towards the mature character we see come the finale of Rebels.
What were your thoughts on the episodes? Which was your favourite? Is there anyone you want to see more of moving forward? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading and May the Force be with you…
The Canon Padawan 