Star Wars: Rebels (TV Series) Rise of the Old Masters (2014) User Reviews

Absolutely Fantastic Star Wars Rebels Episode!

[Johnny-the-Film-Sentinel-2187 · 9/10 · 20 October 2016]

*Minor Spoilers Below*

Rise of the Old Masters, I think, can be easily compared to the movies of The Original Star Wars Trilogy thanks to its character development, its twist in the story, and The Inquisitor having time to shine here as a villain with presence.

The episode opens up with Ezra training with Kanan and Chopper on the outside of The Ghost. As you'd expect, things don't go well for Ezra: he falls off The Ghost but is saved by Kanan. This results in the master and apprentice getting frustrated with each other; Kanan feels that he isn't meant to train Ezra to be a Jedi. This arc develops some more when the crew of The Ghost receives a distress call from Imperial Defector Gall Trayvis revealing the whereabouts of Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, believed to have been killed during The Clone Wars. Kanan gets the crew to investigate this report. The question is: Will they find Master Luminara?

This episode develops the darker areas of Star Wars Rebels without losing the sense of fun the series has already established. We see more chemistry developing between Ezra and Kanan in this story, particularly, as they help each other when the need arises; very Star Wars-y in nature.

Rise of the Old Masters is definitely a strong part of Star Wars' new canon, and I highly recommend watching this episode first if you have any doubts about introducing yourself to the series in general.

Old and New

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 9/10 · 9 October 2020]

The first story of season 1 was a good solid introduction but that was followed by a couple of comedic fillers. This is the first episode which shows more potential and quality of storytelling.

Our band of rebels hear that former Jedi Master Unduli is alive and in captivity in an Imperial prison cell. They mount a rescue attempt which leads them to encounter the Inquisitor and face some dark revelations.

This still has little bits of cartoonish humour but has plenty of darker, more grown up themes which lift the quality. The Inquisitor is a menacing villain and we get a very enjoyable lightsaber duel with him showing impressive skills and a special lightsaber design which is cool.

The animation is not up to Clone Wars standards which takes getting used to and I would prefer less of the cartoonish physics and silly humour which sneak in on occasion but this was a very good episode.

My rating: 8.5/10.

Rise of the Old Masters

[lassegalsgaard · 8/10 · 8 December 2019]

This episode had exactly what I missed from the last one. It featured the whole team going on a mission that had something to do with the overall story. The inclusion of some of the wider canon characters was a smart move, as it could also help to get some of the more hardcore fans into the series. It introduced a great new antagonist, and set up a really interesting rivalry between him and Kanan. This episode could have easily followed the first, but without the development that the characters received from the previous episodes, a lot of things wouldn't have been as prominent in this one. Ezra is not focused and he is too eager to learn the ways of the Force, which is something that was established in all of the previous episodes. An episode like this is what redeems episodes that could be called filler. I don't think there's been one of those yet, though. The only thing that I didn't really get into was Hera's storyline. She didn't have a lot to do with the overall mission, but taking her unnecessary storyline aside and a few of the usual shortcomings, this was a great episode.

Rise of the Old Mastersss

[Trey_Trebuchet · 8/10 · 3 May 2022]

I thought this was legitimately good. It shows some great potential for what kind of storytelling this series can (and probably does) reach. I feel like there is legitimately weight to the rebel cause now, and that twist halfway through definitely surprised me.

7/10

[aliblackyafshari · 7/10 · 9 June 2022]

''Rise of the Old Masters'' was hilarious.

Chopper is becoming one of my favorite droids.

The Inquisitor was menacing & for someone who's been both a teacher & a student the episode does a good job at showing the challenges of being a teacher/student.