Star Wars Rebels Season One (spoilers)

[CorporalClegg]

I just finished it. I thought it was a pretty good episode.

But the most striking thing I took away from it is how much Tom Kane isn't Frank Oz.

 

[ALF]

Path of the Jedi really didn't work for me. But it's because of the illusion scenes. Star Wars doesn't do illusions well - it's just muddy and unclear. The last two episodes of TCW season six (Yoda's journey) just baffled and annoyed me. What's real... what's not... who cares... etc. So even though Path of the Jedi was far clearer a narrative it still not a Star Wars strength to have heaps of dream-like illusions strewn about.

I did enjoy the idea of Yoda finding them through The Force. That did manage to save the story for me. And it changed the way I interpreted a certain scene on Degobah:

“A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things.” - Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back​

Did anyone honestly think Yoda was watching Luke on Tattooine from Degobah? It's probably fitting that Yoda shows up around Christmas dressed as Santa Claus sometimes... he sees you when you're sleeping and he knows when you're awake! A little creepy.

Not a fan of Sabine/Ezra 'shipping either. Yeech. Bring on Idiot's Array!

 

[Mach5]

One thought - Rebels feels too "localized". The gang needs to leave Lothal behind, there are literally thousands of worlds for them to visit and fight the Empire on.

 

[Mr Light]

Oh, I forgot Yoda said in ESB that he's been watching Luke! I withdraw my theory that it wasn't really Yoda.

 

[Christopher]

One thought - Rebels feels too "localized". The gang needs to leave Lothal behind, there are literally thousands of worlds for them to visit and fight the Empire on.

I guess the idea is that the Alliance grew out of such groups that began resisting locally and only gradually came together into a more widespread group. Even once they're fully up and running, I imagine they'd still need localized cells.

 

[Mach5]

One thought - Rebels feels too "localized". The gang needs to leave Lothal behind, there are literally thousands of worlds for them to visit and fight the Empire on.

I guess the idea is that the Alliance grew out of such groups that began resisting locally and only gradually came together into a more widespread group. Even once they're fully up and running, I imagine they'd still need localized cells.

At this point, the Rebel Alliance still seems to function like a "terrorist" group, something like the early Maquis in 24th century Trek, but the Alliance we saw in the OT was pretty much a full-fledged military, with a clear hierarchy (with ranks and insignia), and armed to the tooth.

 

[Set Harth]

Did anyone honestly think Yoda was watching Luke on Tattooine from Degobah?

Yes, people did think that. I recall old posts to that effect.

I mean, what other options are there, really? Yoda occasionally hopping on a little spaceship secreted in the swamp ( I just realized we never found out what happened to the ship from the ROTS deleted scene ) to make visits to Tatooine so he could spy on Luke in person? Or maybe Ben recording a bunch of videos of Luke and sending them to Dagobah?

I guess the idea is that the Alliance grew out of such groups that began resisting locally and only gradually came together into a more widespread group.

On this point, I believe the intent of the Onderon arc of TCW's fifth season was to show a similar group.

So are Kanan and Hera supposed to be romantically involved, or just very close friends?

Well, Jax Pavan and Laranth Tarak eventually got romantically involved, so if it happens to Kanan and Hera I won't exactly be shocked.

 

[Ithekro]

One thought - Rebels feels too "localized". The gang needs to leave Lothal behind, there are literally thousands of worlds for them to visit and fight the Empire on.

I guess the idea is that the Alliance grew out of such groups that began resisting locally and only gradually came together into a more widespread group. Even once they're fully up and running, I imagine they'd still need localized cells.

At this point, the Rebel Alliance still seems to function like a "terrorist" group, something like the early Maquis in 24th century Trek, but the Alliance we saw in the OT was pretty much a full-fledged military, with a clear hierarchy (with ranks and insignia), and armed to the tooth.

Which is exactly how the Rebel Alliance was written to have started. As seperate resistance/terrorist groups against the Empire. Eventually the groups came together with some powerful backing by some whole planets and some powerful Imperial Senators to form the Alliance to Restore the Republic. At that point they became a shadow governement and began to have a funds and a military to counter the Empire. But that is still a year or three away at this point.

 

[Reverend]

It may be semantics, but I think it's worth pointing out that there's a significant distinction between a terrorist group and an insurgency group. The former is out to cause maximum damage and noise purely for the sake of making political statements and intimidating the populous.
The latter tends to be focused more on diminishing the capabilities of the larger military/industrial apparatus and is generally closer to guerilla warfare than domestic terrorism and tends to depend more on espionage.
Sure the operational realities are similar, but the same could be said for field intelligence operations and indeed organised crime.

As for how big the Alliance is; I think at this point, there is no Alliance, just a bunch of mostly independent cells like the Ghost's cell. There does appear to be an organising force at work (probably centred on Alderaan) but for now they're keeping things compartmentalised. Probably because the Rebellion is at it's most vulnerable in it's nascent stage and it'll be a while before they can organise and supply a larger force.

 

[Marc]

I guess the idea is that the Alliance grew out of such groups that began resisting locally and only gradually came together into a more widespread group. Even once they're fully up and running, I imagine they'd still need localized cells.

At this point, the Rebel Alliance still seems to function like a "terrorist" group, something like the early Maquis in 24th century Trek, but the Alliance we saw in the OT was pretty much a full-fledged military, with a clear hierarchy (with ranks and insignia), and armed to the tooth.

Which is exactly how the Rebel Alliance was written to have started. As seperate resistance/terrorist groups against the Empire. Eventually the groups came together with some powerful backing by some whole planets and some powerful Imperial Senators to form the Alliance to Restore the Republic. At that point they became a shadow governement and began to have a funds and a military to counter the Empire. But that is still a year or three away at this point.

That was mentioned in the original Thrawn trilogy with the Rebel Alliance created through the Corellian Treaty though not sure if that was later contradicted which united all the groups opposed to the Empire.

But that's all been decanonised now.

 

[Ithekro]

True, but that was also mentioned prior to that in the old Roleplaying game, which seems to be how the writers are going along with so far in Rebels. This is also somewhat logical based on what we did see of the Alliance and the known histories of its founders as far back as Padme suggesting it to Bail Organa and Mon Mothma back when they were just standing up to Palpatine's overly long time as Chancellor and his emergency powers.

The structure of the Alliance seems to be individual cells that only have single contact points. More or less how the Ghost operates is exactly how the Rebel Alliance is described in the old West End Games Roleplaying Game. If there is a larger Alliance already, than the Ghost is just a piece of it. But Bail Organa's introduction would seem to indicate that the Alliance is not formed yet, or at least not fully.

Given that there are still four years until Yavin, and the Alliance was seemed fairly new to the Empire, in terms of them reacting to it that is. It had only won one real victory prior to Yavin and was building support in the Imperial Senate at the time the Death Star was completed. This mean that the Alliance could only recently have become fully orginized to have starfighter bases to strike from.

 

[C.E. Evans]

"Idiot's Array" was a fun episode, IMO. We see Lando live up to Han's description of him as "a card player, gambler, scoundrel" and it featured a nice Hera moment or two (or three). Chopper, though, is a total riot.

It was cool having Billy Dee Williams reprise Lando. Smooth like Colt 45.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

It was cool having Billy Dee Williams reprise Lando. Smooth like Colt 45.

So, so far we've had James Earl Jones back as Darth Vader, Frank Oz back as Yoda, and now Billy Dee Williams back as Lando.

And people complained when Disney and their ginormous bank accounts took over Star Wars.

 

[ALF]

Totally agreed, 100% smooth. I have to admit I was pretty freaking pumped to see Lando in Star Wars again, it was a thrill. Gonna grab a Colt 45 tomorrow and watch it again. Actually this may be the most well-balanced episode I've seen yet... lots of movement in the plot, all the characters got a fair share of the story.

Idiot's Array is the episode to beat now as far as I'm concerned. And hey, isn't Sabbac 100% canon now? Pretty awesome stuff. There should so be a Rebels Sabbac app!

 

[Set Harth]

And people complained when Disney and their ginormous bank accounts took over Star Wars.

Well, they did cancel a cartoon series that more people could watch.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

And people complained when Disney and their ginormous bank accounts took over Star Wars.

Well, they did cancel a cartoon series that more people could watch.

yeah but

1) I can't help but think Warner Bros. involvement with the series probably had something to do with it.

2) They were a hell of lot nicer about doing it than most people usually are when cancelling a show.

 

[Set Harth]

The end result was the same. What did they do that was so nice, send flowers and chocolate?

 

[Rat Boy]

Was I the only one who noticed they were playing sabacc with chips that resembled Star Trek's gold pressed latinum?

 

[CorporalClegg]

That was fantastic!

More Lando System please.

 

[Turtletrekker]

BTS with Billy Dee Williams, Dave Filoni and others.