Salutations one and all! Reminder: this is not a full review. Instead, we just look at one or two bits because honestly I’m just kinda lazy. I should probably not write that buuut I’m too lazy to take it out. As always, SPOILERS from here on out.
This week on Rebels, Crawler Commandeers, John McClane must fight off terrorists who have taken over his Crawler and save the one he loves most: himself.
RIP Miner Guy, And I Was Just About To Learn His Name
Well! This was some weird stuff – and I say that of an episode that came right after the one featuring inter-planetary hyperspace jumping Force Loth-wolves. But it did introduce us to my new hero: Miner Guy.
Our Heracles comes from humble origins. Indeed, at first glance he seems to be no different than you or I, as we first meet him lounging in his chair, listening to some hard rock classical music, minding his own business as he’s suddenly set upon by a group of vagabonds. This is where we learn that he is not like us mere mortals, for despite being surprised, outnumbered, held at muscle-point he manages to out-wit his opponents and, with no haste and all nonchalance, he manages to touch a big red button on his vambrace, alerting his colleagues that danger is afoot. Not only that, but he foils his kidnappers’ attempts to calm the situation with Guild Control by fighting off one huge, hairy, muscular kidnapper who frankly could have just knocked him upside the head in the first place and be done with it.
Not content with being a mere background irritation, Miner Guy escapes his captivity in the closet. By sheer luck his captors hadn’t restrained him, nor did they realize that there was a good-sized air-duct in there, too. Making his escape, our slightly-less-than-Adonis-like Adonis scuppered his own Crawler. He made this personal sacrifice knowing full-well that it would set him back in the short term, but he did it gladly and resolutely and with the understanding that it might cost him his life, but if it meant that the ruffians would not get away with it, he would gladly do it. And he did, too.
And yes, alas, it did cost him his life – but not before he went toe to toe with a Rebel, a Jedi of all things! One armed with that most prestigious weapon, the lightsaber. Not only that but he had held his own! Sadly, like Achilles, his failing was foot-adjacent. As Achilles fell, so, too, did Miner Guy, falling to his doom. The Rebel scum had indeed won this day, and a true hero of the Mining Guild died hard in a tragic workplace accident/terrorist attack. He is survived by a loving spouse, 3 irritating but charming children, and an eggplant farm.
In all seriousness, this is something Rebels does very well: it is not content to sit back and have its minor, one episode and done, characters are mere plot contrivances or a group of tropes and be done with it (well, most of the time). They take the effort to carve out a fully fledged character, one with a history, one with their own wants and desires, and their own opinions that drive their actions.
Live By The Sword, Die By Its Misplacement
As much as I loved the fact that this non-martial, every-day character heroically took on an armed and dangerous Jedi all by his lonesome, it struck me as really rather odd. I’m wondering if you could help me parse it out?
What would make this Average Antilles so agreeable as to take on a lightsaber wielding opponent? At first, we know, he thought Ezra and the others were mere pirates – yet he quickly realizes this categorical error when Ezra produces his weapon* – but this doesn’t slow him down. Indeed he seems rather blasé about it. Could it be that he had become so familiar, or even over-awed, with his crewmember using his own light-whip that he either didn’t believe that a mere child could match? Or was it that Miner Guy held no awe over a light-based weapon and so believed that it would provide Ezra with no advantage?
*Oi oi.
Either way, this doesn’t sit well with me, simply because he was familiar with someone who could use the light-whip so well, he should have realized that someone else could conceivably use such a weapon skilfully. Add to the fact that Ezra – or rather, his weapon – was so easily identifiable that Miner Guy should have known that he himself was in far greater danger than he had previously anticipated.
Speaking of which, how well known is Ezra et al to the Imperial populace at large? Though not by face, he was quickly identified by association of his weapon – a fact that in itself is altogether rather odd. I’d have thought that the knowledge that Jedi still exist would have been knowledge that the Empire would want to keep secret, for fear that such knowledge could instill a spark of hope. That it could act, as it were, as a candle and draw quiet dissidents into the open, closer to the Rebel flame? Unless, of course, that was their plan all along.
Those sneaky … fine people.
