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Context Recap / StarWarsRebelsS2E05WingsOfTheMaster

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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rebels_wings_of_the_master.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:"[[Film/TopGun I feel the need...the need for speed!]]"]]
3The Rebels attempt to deliver food supplies to the planet Ibaar which is currently being blockaded by the Empire. After their first attempt to break the blockade fails, the Rebel leadership sends Hera on a mission to acquire a new prototype starfighter that is powerful enough to help.
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6!!Tropes:
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8* ActionPrologue: It starts with the Rebels trying (and failing) to break through an Imperial blockade.
9* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: When it's revealed that the multi-cannon firing drains so much energy that it disables the hyperdrive, Quarrie defends that it's only a prototype with a bunch of bugs that needs to be fixed... for instance the paintjob he doesn't like.
10* BlatantLies:
11** As they're flying/crashing to their destination, Zeb spots a ship which impacted one of the mountains and freaks out. Hera insists he imagined it.
12** Kanan tells Ezra that the ''Ghost''[='s=] smaller profile and superior speed will allow it to slip by the blockade. When Ezra calls him on it, Kanan admits he only said it to make himself feel better.
13* BunnyEarsLawyer: Quarrie. Despite having absolutely zero piloting experience, using a lot of language that would discourage potential pilots from testing his inventions and acknowledging that he's putting his test-pilots at risk, he invented the prototype for what would become one of the most devastating assault fighters in the Rebel fleet.
14* ComingInHot: Hera's landing on Shantipole isn't exactly smooth, thanks to the planet's storms that tend to deactivate ships that attempt to land there.
15* ContinuityNod: Hera mentions the Battle of Ryloth, which was shown in ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars The Clone Wars]]''.
16* ConvergingStreamWeapon: The prototype B-Wing has one with enough power to knock down a cruiser in a few hits.
17* DeathWorld: Shantipole is actually a pretty nice place. Landing there, on the other hand, is made difficult by the storms in the upper atmosphere which drain the power of any ships passing through. It's more like hoping you crash on something flat. According to Quarrie, this actually makes it ''ideal'' for testing his new ships as the Empire won't even set foot on Shantipole, and if a ship can survive there then it can survive anywhere.
18* DidntSeeThatComing: {{Invoked}}, as Kanan explains — LaResistance needs a new weapon that can take TheEmpire by surprise. In this case, a blockade-busting starfighter.
19* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: The run in the opening is doomed to fail, because there wouldn't be much of an episode if they made it through.
20* {{Foreshadowing}}: Quarrie insisting that the pilot of his prototype come to him sounds like a SecretTestOfCharacter (and it may well have been) but it's also because he can't fly himself.
21* GotVolunteered: Kanan volunteers Hera to pick up the B-Wing, since no other pilot is willing to take the risk.
22* GunshipRescue: Hera flies the B-Wing into battle for the first time, saving the rebels during the blockade run.
23* HypocriticalHumor: Quarrie refuses to let Sabine modify the prototype B-Wing's weapons system, then a minute later, reveals that he himself made heavy modifications to the ''Phantom'' without consulting anyone first.
24* {{Irony}}: An expert spaceship designer who is afraid to fly.
25* MidSeasonUpgrade: Quarrie sticks a hyperdrive and astromech socket on the ''Phantom'', reasoning that it's not much of a ship if you can't fly it far.
26* MythologyGag:
27** In the ''Legends'' continuity (first told in [[TabletopGame/StarWarsD6 the West End Games RPG adventure]], "Strikeforce: Shantipole"), the Shantipole Project was set up by Admiral Ackbar to create the B-Wing starfighter. However, that Shantipole was an asteroid that housed a Verpine research base. Though Ackbar is not directly named as being involved in the project, the developer is still a [[FishPeople Mon Calamari]], and indeed the old origin story still seems to be true in BroadStrokes fashion, since the Verpine are still responsible for the ''production'' run of B-Wings.
28*** The name "B-Wing" was simple alphabetics, with designers coming up with an "A-Wing" and a "B-Wing". ''Legends'' later retconned that with Shantipole, giving it the name Blade Wing, which is reintroduced to canon here.
29** Quarrie is almost certainly named after Ralph [=McQuarrie=], the chief concept artist for the original trilogy.
30** The B-Wing's ConvergingStreamWeapon makes the same sound as the Death Star superlaser.
31* NavalBlockade: The premise of the episode is that the Empire has blockaded the planet Ibaar in order to starve its people into submission and the Rebels are trying to save them.
32* RankUp: After Phoenix Leader is killed in the doomed first run, and following the successful second run, Commander Sato promotes Hera to Phoenix Leader on Kanan's suggestion.
33* RunningTheBlockade: The crew is trying to run past an Imperial blockade to deliver food supplies to Ibaar. Alas, they can't run it... so instead they opt to [[LensmanArmsRace bust it]].
34* RaceAgainstTheClock: Due to the Imperial Blockade, the people of Ibaar are on the verge of dying from starvation. Hera and the other Rebels have to deliver the food supplies within the next planetary rotation (i.e one day) or else it will be too late.
35* ShoutOut:
36** Quarrie is clearly named after the late ''Star Wars'' designer, Ralph [=McQuarrie=].
37** Hera buzzes Quarrie's design shop like Maverick buzzing the tower in ''Film/TopGun''.
38** Quarrie designs and builds a plane without having actually having flown it, which they only find out just before it takes off. This might have been inspired by ''Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix1965''.
39* SuperPrototype: Deconstructed. Though the B-Wing prototype has a really powerful laser cannon that the final versions don't and a gunner turret that would be scrapped when the B-wing expanded years later, it's also noted to have a bunch of bugs that need to be ironed out, one of which almost causes it to be rendered [[AwesomeButImpractical useless]]. At some point, the designers eventually decided that a huge magazine of proton torpedoes and ion cannons were more practical than a bulky ConvergingStreamWeapon.
40* TeeteringOnTheEdge: The ''Phantom'', deactivated by the atmospheric storms, makes a rough landing at Quarrie's and nearly slides off the edge. As Hera, Sabine and Zeb edge towards the back of the shuttle, it nearly falls off the edge of the platform before Quarrie saves it with his forklift.
41* ThisCannotBe: Kallus is flabbergasted when the B-Wing blows away his blockade's right flank.
42* WhatAPieceOfJunk: The prototype B-Wing may not be much to look at, but it packs a mean punch.
43* WoundedGazelleGambit: Kallus deliberately cut Ibaar's rations to an untenable extent, knowing the underground elements would contact the rebels for help. Then he stationed a blockade large enough to make sure that the rebels would be incapable of breaching it. The rebels can't just turn their backs, so they would throw themselves against the blockade until they had no strength left. True to the type of gambit this is, there is a fail state: [[DidntSeeThatComing unexpected new assets]] that the Rebels availed themselves to.
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