Star Wars Rebels Season Two (spoilers)

[Christopher]

But they come out right next to the planet. You can exit the jump at the edge of the solar system, micro-jump in another direction, then micro-jump back towards the planet. The gravity well stopper only happens at short range; it's not like you have to exit at the edge of the solar system and burn the entire way in.

Not to mention that it's a planet. It's not a warehouse. It's thousands of kilometers wide, and its orbital space is a few orders of magnitude roomier than any combat arena humans have ever fought in. Even without bringing hyperspace into it, the idea of a few ships being able to "blockade" that entire immense volume is beyond preposterous. You'd need to surround the whole planet with a cordon of thousands of ships. Or, more plausibly, just build a ground outpost or use a squadron of aerial ships to defend the specific location on the planet surface that the enemy is trying to reach.

There's also the fact that ships in orbit are not just hovering in a fixed position. They're racing around the planet at high speed like cars on a racetrack, except in three dimensions and with gravity pulling them in toward the center of the track. There are countless trajectories that could be taken to get to the surface.

 

[DarthPipes]

I think people forget how underwhelming Clone Wars was at the beginning.

Quite true. The difference is that Clone Wars always felt a little older than Rebels does. So that, even when it wasn't at its best, the stories seemed to carry a bit more heft than Rebels sometimes does.

That said, there's been a definite shift in tone in Rebels. It's darker and more ominous this season. So that, along with its quality production, Rebels definitely has a promising future - provided it has the room to evolve that Clone Wars did.

I think the episode that REALLY showed what The Clone Wars was capable of was Season 2's Landing at Point Rain, the Longest Day-inspired Battle of Geonosis.

Last night's episode definitely had a Clone Wars vibe to it.

Really enjoyed Rebels last night and that Hera finally moved to the front of the action. The B-wing was awesome and I enjoyed seeing the debut of the fighter. Really strong opening battle to and I liked the short and fat Mon Cal Quarrie.

 

[Christopher]

I only just realized that the guy's name wasn't Quarry, which seemed strange to me, but Quarrie, as in Ralph McQuarrie. I should've seen that. The whole series is an extended homage to McQuarrie's concept art.

 

[Turtletrekker]

^Pretty sure it's well established you can't jump close to a gravity well, certainly not towards it and they were already in what looked light high orbit.

I don't remember this being stated in any of the six movies.

Clone Wars.

 

[Mr Light]

<<
We'll see them in Rouge One, that's my bet. I hope Rebels isn't cancelled prematurely to 'make room' for Rouge One. In terms on timelines, Rouge One takes place at the end of Rebels, no? It has a fixed release date of December 2016. Does that mean Rebels is limited to three seasons? Hopefully not (tugs at collar a la Rodney Dangerfield) they should aim for at least 100 eps, a number no where near to that after season three ends. >>

They've already announced several months ago that they're finishing writing/voice acting the entire series of Rebels. I forgot how many seasons they said it was, I want to say four. They're already working on the NEXT show which will be post-ROTJ.

 

[Mach5]

^Pretty sure it's well established you can't jump close to a gravity well, certainly not towards it and they were already in what looked light high orbit.

I don't remember this being stated in any of the six movies.

Clone Wars.

In that case, "well established" might be an overstatement... Although I like to think of Rebels as a continuation of Clone Wars, so it works for me.

 

[Reverend]

^Travelling through hyperspace isn't like dusting crops boy.

 

[ALF]

They've already announced several months ago that they're finishing writing/voice acting the entire series of Rebels. I forgot how many seasons they said it was, I want to say four. They're already working on the NEXT show which will be post-ROTJ.

I'm not sure if three years is going to be enough. I totally believe you, Mr Light, but I think it's hard for me as a fan to fathom a 55-60 episode series from a business perspective. Isn't 100 the generally accepted magic number for syndication? It just strikes me a little odd to go through the motions of creating all these characters and settings (ahem- aaaand merchandising ahoy!) for just three years and a handful of episodes.

I'd read early on that the whole series was mapped out and would have a 3 act structure - which is great, many TV shows never see that kind of completion. It's ambitious.

I found these old chestnuts:
http://makingstarwars.net/2014/11/r...easons-sequel-trilogy-animated-series-follow/

http://rebelsreport.com/2014/11/26/rumor-star-wars-rebels-to-only-air-for-3-or-4-seasons/
...but they're a year old. If anyone has linky-linky to any news about the full run of Rebels, please share, I'm intensely curious.

Agreed with Mach5, I see Rebels as actually the extended epilogue to The Clone Wars. I just don't want to see it fade before addressing a bunch of stuff we want to see. If we are now truly at the half way point of the entire series (which seems unfathomable since we are really just getting used to everything) I wonder how they are going to include the following without it seeming like a fast forward (cough, cough, Revenge of the Sith, cough):

• Zare and Dhara Leonis
• Ezra's Parents
• The 2 New Inquisitors/Future Inquisitors
• Vader vs Ahsoka
• Ahsoka's fate, implied or otherwise
• The fate of the Ghost crew
• The promised formation of the Rebellion

I'm sure I'm missing some. Those are major arcs, not just single episodes.

Also there's the likelyhood that the events of Rebels may end with the formation of the Rogue One story, set around the exact same time. Sorry to be a broken record about this - it's almost a certainty that our Rebels heroes will learn about the Death Star at some point...

 

[Christopher]

I'm not sure if three years is going to be enough. I totally believe you, Mr Light, but I think it's hard for me as a fan to fathom a 55-60 episode series from a business perspective. Isn't 100 the generally accepted magic number for syndication?

If anything, 65 episodes seems to be the magic number for animated series. Cartoon Network will usually produce 65 episodes of a series and then either cancel it or reboot it. Starting fresh after 65 episodes lets them promote a whole new range of toys, after all. That's why we've gotten new versions of Batman, Ben 10, and Scooby-Doo every 3-4 years. Over on Nickelodeon, Avatar: The Last Airbender had 61 episodes and The Legend of Korra had 52.

Besides, does syndication even matter that much anymore? I'd think DVD season sets and online streaming would be the dominant considerations for long-term profits these days, and those do well at shorter lengths.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Syndication to where, anyway? I can't see Rebels airing on anything but a Disney-owned network, well, ever. And I very much doubt there has to be any magic number of episodes for Rebels to end up on any other Disney-owned network, including ABC.

Unlike some seasons of The Clone Wars which did find their way into syndication, which for me was late at night on weekends in an irregular slot (I forgot which channel, except that it was one of the "big three").

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I'm not sure if three years is going to be enough. I totally believe you, Mr Light, but I think it's hard for me as a fan to fathom a 55-60 episode series from a business perspective. Isn't 100 the generally accepted magic number for syndication?

If anything, 65 episodes seems to be the magic number for animated series. Cartoon Network will usually produce 65 episodes of a series and then either cancel it or reboot it. Starting fresh after 65 episodes lets them promote a whole new range of toys, after all.

Disney in particular is known for this
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/65th_Episode_Rule
though common for others
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SixtyFiveEpisodeCartoon

So if Rebels was planned for a 65 episode run it wouldn't be surprising.

 

[ALF]

Hmmm. [Shrug]. Okay, if you guys are cool with it, I'll deal.
65 episodes it is!

 

[Christopher]

Disney in particular is known for this
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/65th_Episode_Rule

Yep, that article points out that the 65-episode number started out back in the days when animated series would run five days a week in syndication, and the standard season length for animation was 13 weeks. So a Saturday morning network show would have 13-episode seasons, while a strip-syndicated weekday show would have 65-episode seasons. For example, The Real Ghostbusters and Gargoyles both started with a 13-episode Saturday morning season on ABC and then added another 52 episodes for a strip-syndicated season totalling 65 episodes, and any further Saturday-morning seasons afterward were back to 13 episodes. He-Man, which started in daily syndication, had two 65-episode seasons. Then there's the original Ninja Turtles cartoon -- first they did a 5-episode miniseries stripped over one week, then they did a 13-episode network season, and then they did a 47-episode season to get it to the 65-episode total for strip syndication, although it went on for a few more years after that.

I don't know, though, when or why the practice of stopping a show at 65 episodes (or even 52 in some cases, as per that TV Tropes link) began.

 

[Reverend]

So worse case scenario: after 65 episodes they can just re-brand the show and move things up to the period between ANH & ESB. I don't see much of an issue here. They paid a lot for this franchise and there's no way they're not going to have an ongoing show on the air so long as they're making movies and they have a proven format and an experienced production crew.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I thought they've already hinted that there'll be a new series after it ends?

 

[Mr Light]

A google search didn't turn up word on how long Rebels will be, so I think I heard it on the Force Cast podcast in an interview with one of the voice actors.

Here's an old article about a post-ROTJ series:
http://screenrant.com/stars-wars-reclamation-episode-7-prequel/

Here's the article about the new show:
http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Star-Wars-May-Planning-TV-Series-Get-Details-68615.html

The studio’s goal is to get somewhere around three or four seasons of Star Wars Rebels to audiences before bowing out with a planned ending and zipping into a new timeline on another series.

So if that timeline is indeed correct, that would put this alleged untitled series coming out in either 2017 or 2018, right around the time when Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: Episode VIII would be hitting theaters. Chances are, J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens will introduce enough new characters and locations to fill a new animated universe, but having it tie in with a second movie would give it even greater scope and room for narrative growth. There’s a good chance it wouldn’t directly deal with whatever main characters we’ll be seeing in the new movie, but there’s really no telling what Lucasfilm is cooking up these days.

 

[publiusr]

I only just realized that the guy's name wasn't Quarry, which seemed strange to me, but Quarrie, as in Ralph McQuarrie. I should've seen that. The whole series is an extended homage to McQuarrie's concept art.

They do have some great ship designs coming up soon

Very enjoyable standalone! Hera is my favorite character and it's cool to build a whole episode around the introduction of the B Wing.

Dumb question, do we know if X-Wings exist yet or not?

Now I would have had her "steal" the X-Wing from INCOM (off Fresia) myself.
The slow rotation would have narrowed the approaches to a certain area--better explaining a more limited blockade
Star Wars meets FIREFOX

Other questions: B-wings weren't seen onscreen until Return of the Jedi. Why not, if they were around this early? And did they have that four-beam mini-Death-Star-laser weapon there?

The B-wings--and especially the blistering speed A-Wings should have come later:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/RZ-1_A-wing_interceptor

Those looked like A-wings with the Blockade Runners. Too early.

One could say that the later, mass production B-wings lacked that primary weapon.

I might have expected a Skipray or something larger to have that kind of firepower:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/GAT-12_Skipray_Blastboat
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Marauder-class_corvette

Both are a better fit to the timeline.

In Star Fleet Battles, such craft might be called Fast Patrol Ships

 

[Ithekro]

There were a lot of West End Games Roleplaying game tie ins here. Shantipole, for instance was the supplement name for the B-wing project building newer models of B-wings under Akbar. That the planet is called Shantipole and that the project will take its name (under a Mon Calamari engineer) connects those points well. That project might go to exactly were the old West End Games stories went with Akbar running the project.

The prototype is different than the production models we see in Return of the Jedi or any other media, so the "origins" of the B-wing can remain intact for later models.

The primary weapon might have been removed from the B-wing in production due to its problems with the hyperdrive, but we never did see it fire its weapons in Return of the Jedi, and it was designed to take out capital ships, and in that film was suppose to take out a Star Destroyer by themselves. So the weapon might be there, and we just never saw it used.

The A-wings have a older, slower fighter that predates them known as the Spearhead, but usually called the A-wing by rebels. These A-wings in Rebels do no appear to be all that fast compared to the TIE fighers. So I'd call them the older fighter rather than the ones we see in Return of the Jedi. Remember that they had A-wings in Droids which might predate Rebels in the timeline. They also had something similar to a B-wing. Maybe one of Quarrie's older designs.

I do hope one day we'll see the liberation of the X-wings from INCOM. That is almost a perfect Rebels story.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ "Project Shantipole" was the name used in the X-Wing PC game expansion pack for the B-wing fighter, for the B-wing development project under Ackbar.

 

[publiusr]

i did like the reddish, Chris Foss type paint.