New Star Wars animated show "Rebels" coming fall 2014

billcosby's idea is a good one. Vader doesn't necessarily have to become directly involved with the heroes of the series, he can just appear every now and then on a viewscreen or in some transmission to the citizens of the Empire or to Imperial commanders out in the field. Just so we know he's out there and a continuing presence who might be looming just on the other side of the next sector or star system.

 

I imagine the first we see of him could be something similar to his entrance on Hoth as the Falcon takes off ... entering a hangar deck as our heroes desperately flee the Imperials. Just a background shot, even without dialogue, would be enough to whip fans into a frenzy.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if we see the Inquisitior reporting to either Vader or The Emperor somewhere along the line.
As for other familiar characters, I've gotten the impression that the main characters end up getting involved in the beginning of the rebellion, so I would expect them to run into some of the people we already know played a big role in the RA like Mon Mothma, Bail Organa or Jan Dodonna. Just because they're not the main characters doesn't mean they won't ever appear on the show. After TCW I trust Filoni and the rest of his team to know what they're doing.

 

True, but if these new character are involved in the growing, early stages of the Rebellion (or even remotely connected with it), the Emperor would presumably be able to sense it. And I can't think of anything he'd want Vader doing that would be more important than squashing a rebellion.

Unless at this point in time he just prefers to keep Vader close to him on Coruscant, or as his personal bodyguard or something...

 

Vader being unable to make short work of these characters would severely undermine the OT. Unless they think it's a good idea to have Vader come off as weak and ineffectual, which I can't imagine that they would but you never know, Vader should be just a secondary or tertiary character, or when he shows up it's time for somebody to die.

 

I think they successfully managed to avoid that with Grevious (which is more than you can say about Episode III) so I'm sure they'll be able to incorporate Vader a handful of times without making him look bad.

 

There's not even a remote comparison between Grievous and Vader.

 

You can compare them in the sense that, within the context of the TV show, it's beneficial to show them on screen. The audience knows they are out there, so there's an expectation that the characters will make an appearance at some point. But there has to be a balance to their on-screen presence. They can't lose to the heroes very often, but neither can they be so powerful that the heroes have no chance. You could say the same for Dooku in TCW, too. Filoni & co. have shown they can do a pretty decent job with that balancing act, so it's quite possible to have our heroes cross paths with Vader at some point - without either them being killed, or Vader looking weak (just as they crossed paths with both Dooku and Grievous in TCW).

 

That seems unlikely. That sort of thing might work in a video game, but I think it would be awfully stilted in a TV series.

Besides, Vader's been played by other actors before. Brock Peters played him on radio, and he's been played in other video games by Scott Lawrence, Terrence C. Carson, and Matt Sloan. IMDb says Sloan is "rumored" to play Vader in this, although I don't put a lot of stock in IMDb rumors. (Although if he did, he'd be the third Matthew to play Anakin Skywalker, after Mat Lucas and Matt Lanter in the two Clone Wars shows.)

Yeah, but... is that what we want the show to be? A series about "minor nuisances?" Why focus on characters who aren't central to the Rebellion?

I hope so. It's encouraging that Filoni managed to feature a huge, sprawling cast in TCW, while Greg Weisman did the same in Young Justice.

 

I expect the Inquisitor to fill that gap. He can be a badass who doesn't have to be invincible.

It's worth pointing out that Luke escaped a fight with Vader by basically ducking out of it. It's not going to look good if characters confront Vader only to duck out of the fight (say by blowing themselves out an airlock; been there, done that). Again, the problem is that such a thing undermines the OT. We've seen Vader arriving on scene just a minute too late, and we've seen heroes duck out of fights with him. The curse of fans writing material is that they tend to regurgitate the cool beats from the original source material. If Vader's going to be engaging these characters directly, there's going to have to be a novel twist. Or he just kills them, which I doubt.

 

If Vader engages them, those characters are going to die (my preference) or Vader is going to lose cred if they score a victory over him.

 

Another thing from the bag-of-usual-tricks is to send minor or guest (i.e., throwaway) characters off to their deaths at Vader's hands. Meet the new guy wearing the red shirt.

 

Or, Vader defeats and captures a main character, then leaves, and then the others rescue him.

 

Well, I don't see too many opportunities for Vader to be engaging the heroes directly, with any regularity ... though I also don't see where anyone here is advocating specifically that kind of interaction, either. Furthermore, Filoni and his crew made quite a bit of hay out of referencing specific beats, lines, circumstances, etc. in TCW. Whether or not you think they were simply "regurgitating" those moments, or utilizing them in a fun way to advance the story and refer back to all six films in the saga is, certainly, open to interpretation.

But as far as I am concerned, they handled those references exceedingly well. To the point where I have little concern that depicting Vader on-screen in Rebels would undermine his character or the OT.

So while I agree that the Inquisitor is better suited for more frequent, personal, and direct confrontations, Vader's presence can certainly be a benefit to the show as well. At least, from my certain point of view.

 

In other words, Leia aboard the Death Star all over again, only before Leia aboard the Death Star ever happens. Yeah, I hope the writers don't pen some episode where Vader has the crew in his sights, captures one or more of them and then we sit back and watch the incompetence of his supposed crack troops as the characters escape or get rescued. Then there's the obligatory "Vader balling up his fist and complaining" scene where he vows to destroy them all should their paths cross again.

Not too enthusiastic about that. They could do better, and the fewer "whew, that was a close call" encounters with Darth Vader the better for everybody.

 

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

I'm cool with Vader not being the Skeletor of the show, the villain who loses every week. But I want the show to explore the big-picture history and politics of the Empire and the Rebellion to a reasonable degree. It doesn't have to involve the crew of the Ghost every week. TCW moved back and forth among quite a few different focus characters. I doubt Rebels would do that to the same extent, but there could be some episodes focused more on the Ghost and others focused more on the halls of power, the Senate, Vader, etc. Or there could be an A plot about one and a B plot about the other.

Knowing Weisman, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Vader and Palpatine's machinations as an ongoing arc underlying the events of the season's overall storyline, like the Light in Young Justice. I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see episodes where the heroes think they've scored some victory but it all turns out to be a step in a Xanatos Gambit of Palpatine's or Vader's.

 

I'm with you on wanting to see more politics and the development of the Empire into the institution we saw for the very first time in A New Hope. I'd like to see the Senate chamber in action all over again, this time as the Imperial Senate. Some Imperial bureaucrats and moffs rushing about trying to determine which official gets to rule which sliver or chunk of territory and how it will benefit them and their own ambitions.

I know this is an animated show on a Disney network that skews towards kids, boys and action, but some texture and depth won't hurt a series like this. Given all the kid-friendly elements in Episode I we still got treated to a lot of political jockeying and terminology, so I hope the new show takes a similar route.

 

Yeah, and given the track record of the show's creators ... I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt.

 

I just watched all the character featurettes and I'm really looking forward to this show. I like that it's going to be a large cast of characters rather than an anthology series with only 1-2 characters at a time the way Clone Wars was. That was fine at the time, but I'm glad this is going to have a different structure.

 

I could have done with fewer direct confrontations with Grievous. Grievous was established in the micro-series as a badass who could take out Jedi Masters. His lightsaber collection was earned. In some cases, that carried over into TCW, but in others not so much and in eye-rolling fashion. Ahsoka, having survived at least two direct confrontations with Grievous, is by implication one of the most skilled Jedi in the galaxy. Fortunately, at least in my book, she lived up to that distinction in the final episodes of season five.

This confrontation between Ahsoka and Grievous was pretty good:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e9kxU-13W0[/yt]


Unfortunately, this one, the first, was much less so. Obviously, the writers hadn't yet seen The Incredibles, or they'd've learned the pitfalls of monologuing ():

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tDQGLLZSUs[/yt]

Yeah, that scenario seems like a temptation. Some heroes are captured, but kept alive, because they have to be interrogated, which—wait for it—creates the opportunity for escape. Lucas already went there in the OT right out of the gate, and even covered the trope of the bad guys letting the heroes escape just to track them back to base. Next film, some heroes were captured to be used as bait to lure another. The Rebels writers are going to have to be really creative to come up with something to top ANH and TESB, if they are going to revisit the captured heroes trope, but it will still have the handicap of occurring chronologically before the OT, which risks undermining the OT. Best not to go there at all, and instead come up with something fundamentally new, especially if Vader is involved.*

* - Another temptation (gods, I can see it now): They decide to "explain" how it is that Vader knows in ANH that Obi-Wan isn't planning to escape, by having Rebels characters employ a similar gambit on Vader. See, Vader knows, because he's seen it before! Get it?

However, all six films in the PT and OT have involved rescues of main characters (Queen Amidala by Qui-Gon & Obi-Wan; Obi-Wan by Anakin & Padmé & Mace & Yoda; Palpatine by Obi-Wan and Anakin; Leia by everybody else but losing Obi-Wan; everybody else except R2 by Luke but failing to rescue Han; Han & Leia by the Ewoks), so maybe captures and rescues are obligatory in Star Wars.

Political machinations would be nice. I hope there are at least a few episodes spotlighting that. One of my favorite scenes in Star Wars is the first scene aboard the Death Star.