New Star Wars animated show "Rebels" coming fall 2014

[cooleddie74]

I think the environment aboard the first Death Star encouraged a lot of competition between officers and backbiting, including the occasional poke or swipe at Darth Vader since he was probably seen by more officers than just Motti as an unwanted intrusion by the Emperor over the day-to-day operations of the battle station. In retrospect Grand Moff Tarkin was likely one of the three or four most powerful and feared people in the entire Empire and was allowed a significant amount of leeway by the Emperor to behave the way he wanted so long as the Death Star was completed and fully operational.

Normally an Imperial officer berating Vader or even just failing to successfully execute one of his orders could get themselves killed (both Admiral Ozzel and Captain Needa learned this - and fatally so - in the next film), but Tarkin was the supreme authority on the Death Star and his inner circle of high-ranking officers were protected by him because he needed their skills and ruthlessness to operate the station at peak efficiency (otherwise he wouldn't have stepped in and directly ordered Vader to stop choking Motti) and Vader was not at the top of that localized chain of command. Hence, some officers felt they could get away with expressing themselves more openly and honestly than if they had been serving aboard Vader's own Star Destroyer.

 

[Corran Horn]

Yeah, I got the memo on that. The implicit question was whether it was ever dealt with in the EU, asked and answered.

It's been dealt with in the EU in multiple ways. The Daley novels, as mentioned, Bria's involvement in the Han Solo trilogy, Dark Forces...

The use of Toprawa as a either a relay station or 'the scene of the crime' is pretty consistent, as is the planet's punishment (basically getting taken back to the stone age technologically) throughout the 'mainline' prose books.

 

[Reverend]

It's pretty clear that after the first film, Darth Vader was retconned to be more important in response to the character's popularity. Before, he was just the henchman to the Grand Moff (whatever that is), but now he was the chosen apprentice of the Emperor himself, oh, and Luke's dad, by the way.

That does make a lot of sense when you read some of the earlier drafts where the "Sith Knights" are just and order of assassins under the control of the Emperor, who's just some bureaucrat that knocked off his predecessor. If memory serves, in that version of events the Jedi were like the praetorian guard of the old Emperor, hence them being purged and hunted by this competing order of force users after the coup. Some of this clearly survived into ANH, though not exactly overtly.

IIRC the idea of the Old Republic "rotting" and being taken over by some ambitious bureaucrat was present in the original novelization. I don't think there's any indication that the Emperor was a force user prior to ESB.

Indeed, prior to the retcon. all Obi Wan originally said was that Vader was a Jedi pupil of his who turned to evil and helped the Empire hunt down the Jedi.

 

[JD]

Is the stuff you talked about there in the The Star Wars comics?

 

[Trek Survivor]

In the new Marvel comic series "Darth Vader", starting in January, the writer is apparently going to explain how Vader goes from being the shamed survivor of the Death Star's destruction to so feared and respected in TESB.

For what it's worth (and if anyone really cares about canon anymore...) the new Marvel comics are said to be aligned in with the new movies and Disney's overall take on the franchise.

 

[davejames]

"Shamed survivor"? I think that might be pushing it a bit. The only reason he didn't destroy Luke is because the Falcon came out of nowhere to stop him. And it was Tarkin who was the overconfident one who didn't think the rebels would pose a threat, and who didn't prepare the Death Star properly.

I don't really see what Vader has to be ashamed about.

 

[cooleddie74]

Yeah, if anything Vader knew he wouldn't be held responsible for the Death Star's destruction and he had been the sole survivor of the battle station. The Empire may have lost the Battle of Yavin and the most powerful weapon in the galaxy but he managed to fly away from the scene alive and in one piece. He would get to have another shot at defeating the Rebellion, this time with vengeance in mind.

Don't really see where "shame" enters the equation.

 

[sojourner]

New clip:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-LfQCPJJkY[/yt]

 

[Doctorwhovian]

Vader does show some annoyance at the Moff's plan to interrogate Leia in a deleted scene (The scene actually appears-with new dialogue-in the Holiday Special of all places!).

Vader also faced a Grand Moff rival-Jerjorodd in the early ROTJ scripts. However the rivalry was cut and Jerjorodd (although referred to only as "Commander" in the film itself) was pretty much made into a minor character (Although he has some interesting deleted material in the blu-ray extras).

The idea of a rival for Vader eventually made it into the 'midquel' "Shadows Of The Empire" which is now no longer canon.

 

[davejames]

Heh, that was actually a pretty funny video. And kinda fitting that they chose Grover to play Yoda as well, since they, like, have the same voice and all.

 

[Christopher]

And kinda fitting that they chose Grover to play Yoda as well, since they, like, have the same voice and all.

Well, they used to. Eric Jacobson has been Grover's main performer since 1998, and has taken over most of Frank Oz's other characters as well, though David Rudman took over Cookie Monster. However, apparently Oz does occasionally reprise his roles for Sesame Street, and that did sound like Oz's Grover in the clip -- although it was definitely Rudman doing Cookie Monster. However, if it was Oz, the Muppet Wiki hasn't been updated with the info yet.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I like how the Cookie Monster knows that Groda reminds him of someone, but he's not sure who.

 

[Christopher]

"Only One Cannoli." And Snuffy in the background as a bantha.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Artoo and Threepio.

 

[cooleddie74]

Nice.

The two droids could make almost anything in this universe better and more entertaining and I'm glad they'll be playing roles in the new series, however peripheral.

 

[Stephen!]

"Shamed survivor"? I think that might be pushing it a bit.

In "Heir to the Empire", Vader was punished by Palpatine over the destruction of the Death Star. Although obviously, that's not considered part of continuity anymore ....

"I don't imagine that the Emperor was pleased," Luke murmured. "No, he wasn't," Mara said, her voice dark with memories of her own. "Vader nearly died for that blunder." Deliberately, she looked over at Luke's hands. "That was when he lost his right hand, in fact."

 

[Set Harth]

Actually, that's from page 266 of Dark Force Rising. ( NERD ALERT )

 

[Dream]

"I don't imagine that the Emperor was pleased," Luke murmured. "No, he wasn't," Mara said, her voice dark with memories of her own. "Vader nearly died for that blunder." Deliberately, she looked over at Luke's hands. "That was when he lost his right hand, in fact."

Mara again acting like a know it all. We all know Anakin lost his right hand against Dooku.