Star Wars Rebels “Blood Sisters” Review

by Courtney Martin

It’s a showdown as Sabine squares off against an old frenemy.

Star Wars Rebels Blood Sisters Review S02E06

“Blood Sisters”
Star Wars Rebels S02E06

This week viewers were introduced to a new character, a bounty hunter named Ketsu Onyo, and she was fierce and out for Sabine.

Sabine leads a mission to meet a courier with information for the Rebels, along with Ezra and Chopper. As they prepare to leave, Ezra, in typical teenage fashion, babblers on about how Sabine likes to be alone most of the time. This is gearing us up for the episode, we get some background information about where Sabine came from.

During the mission we meet Ketsu (voiced by Gina Torres), a bounty hunter working for Black Sun (wow!), who is attempting to collect the droid courier. Ketsu’s outfit is pretty cool; and according to Dave Filoni it was a character design first worked up for The Force Awakens. When it was not going to be used for the film, Filoni scooped it up for Star Wars Rebels. Ketsu is completely masked, so it gives a good element of suspense as to what she looks like. When she makes her entrance we can tell immediately she’s an excellent fighter. Sabine calls Ketsu “old friend”, and tells Ezra how they broke out of the Imperial academy. Sabine says Ketsu got greedy and left her for dead. What did Ketsu do? Why did she leave Sabine? So many questions for this back story, and none are answered in this episode. How did Ketsu meet up with Black Sun? Was Sabine a part of that organization too at some point? Perhaps we’ll get additional story info in future episodes. So far, these character background episodes raise a lot more questions than give us any answers–just enough teasers to give our main characters more intrigue.

Star Wars Rebels Blood Sisters Review S02E06

Sabine and Ezra manage to get the courier, a Gonk droid, onto a shuttle to escape the incoming Stormtroopers. (Anyone else wonder at the quickness of that Gonk droid to get up the stairs into the shuttle?) Ketsu helps them escape, but then turns around and pursues them into space. Ezra falls off the shuttle (he lands on his feet), and Sabine just leaves him. Sabine tells Chopper he’ll be fine. Leaving a comrade behind is not the best quality in a leader, and I was a bit taken aback by Sabine’s action. Chopper was the only one worried about Ezra. This felt like a convenient way to “get rid” of Ezra for the rest of the episode so it could focus on Sabine.

One sweet part of this scene is the fight between Ketsu and the stormtroopers. She shows off her fight skills (great staff work) and ruthlessness. She did not give the troopers any leniency.

As Ketsu pursues Sabine, she blasts open the door on the shuttle, exposing it to space. The animation here is great, all the atmosphere pouring out of the shuttle, and both the Gonk droid and Chopper struggling to stay put. Chopper gets thrown into space, but he’s got a rocket (like R2D2) and is able to fly onto Ketsu’s ship, and expertly dismantle the weapons system. I love how much expression Chopper gets to have in this episode. While he’s just a droid, his chirps and arm motions really give us an idea of his sassy personality.

Star Wars Rebels Blood Sisters Review S02E06

Chopper ends up getting captured by Ketsu, and Sabine has to dock with Ketsu’s ship to initiate a droid trade. We now get to see an unmasked Ketsu; her character has a mostly shaved head with tattoos. And very violet eyes. Quite a striking appearance.

Sabine is says Chopper is more than a droid, he’s a rebel and a friend. This may be the first time any one of the Ghost’s crew refers to Chopper as a friend. Sabine tries to convince Ketsu of the importance of the Rebellion (and seems to do a good job of it). As an Imperial ship arrives Ketsu agrees to work with Sabine to escape the Empire.  To me it seems Ketsu just changed her stance on capturing the Gonk droid too easily. I kept thinking she may turn against Sabine by the end of the episode, but that never happened.

Sabine, Ketsu, and Chopper plan to blow up the shuttle (anybody else feel bad for the droid captain of the shuttle?). Sabine gets injured, and Ketsu goes back to save her. Both droids, Ketsu, and Sabine are able to escape in Ketsu’s ship. I love the animation of the ship jumping to hyperspace; the blue lines are just like in the films.

Star Wars Rebels Blood Sisters Review S02E06

The Gonk course is safely delivered (to R2D2 no less). There’s a brief, but cute, meeting between R2 and Chopper. I liked this interaction as both droids have similar personalities, to a degree. Sabine tries again to convince Ketsu to join the Rebels. Ketsu said she’ll think about it, so perhaps we’ll see more of her in future episodes. I’d like to see more of Sabine’s back story; maybe they’ll do some short videos released only online that delve deeper into our main character’s stories.

Next week’s episode looks great–we get back to fighting the Empire. Multiple Star Destroyers…and something bigger. We’ll also get to see Kanan and Ezra go under cover. It looks to be an exciting episode!

Star Wars Rebels Blood Sisters Review S02E06

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