Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

How do?

Had a look, had a search, and I was frankly shocked and discombobulated that there was no sign of an existing thread. For shame.

Anyways, on with the show.

For those unaware, Star Wars Rebels is an animated series which airs on Disney XD, and is initially set five years before The Battle of Yavin. It's also officially canon. As canon as a large gun mounted on a tank but spelt incorrectly.

And do you know? It's pretty damned superb.

It follows the exploits of a small Rebel cell, the crew of The Ghost; Hera Syndulla (daughter to Cham Syndulla, first met in Season 1 of Clone Wars), Kanan Jarus (Jedi), Garazeb 'Zeb' Orelius (bit of a goon, Lasat), Ezra Bridge (Padawan to Kanan), Sabine Wren (actual Mandalorian, former Empire Cadet, all round bad-bottom) and C-1OP (aka Chopper, aka the besterest Astromech ever).

So far, we're just over the half way point with Season 3 - and we've seen some cameos in Rogue One.

Story wise, it mostly charts how the Rebellion operated pre-Yavin, and it's starting to weave old EU characters into the new canon, as well as bringing back some old favourites (replete with the voice acting skills of their actual actors. So when Lando turns up, it's the still-bafflingly-charming Billy Dee Williams, and Season 3 sees Grand Admiral Thrawn. Yep. That Grand Admiral Thrawn).

For those who haven't indulged yet, off you pop. You can get it pretty cheaply on DVD, and through iTunes as well. Go on. Quickly now.

For those who have seen it? GET FROTHING!

The show had a slow start - certainly wasn't as good coming straight off from the Clone Wars. But after a couple of episodes, it really got going, and continues to impress me

I was particularly impressed with Yoda's first showing.

Although brief, it drills down some into how he has coped with the fall out of the Clone Wars and the rise of The Empire.

I don't want to give spoilers, so I just recommend instead watching Season 1 to find out.

When it finally ends up on Netflix (which will be never probably) I'll be able to watch it. But until then, I'll just have to hear about the episodes second hand.

I wouldn't mind owning them, but TV shows are not cheap these days, nor are they often complete

$25.66 according to Amazon.com

Trust me, it's worth a punt

Yeah, definitely worth buying, series 1 is good, series 2 escalates to fantastic and the current series is approaching mind-blowing.

 Paradigm wrote:

Spoiler:

I cannot wait for the final showdown between Maul and Kenobi, that's been overdue for quite some time. I do hope though that it's strictly those two, there's too much history there for Kanan and Ezra to be getting involved as well without cheapening it.

And as for Thrawn, damn, he's killing it! It's great to have a villain in Star Wars that isn't just swinging lightsabers around, and Lars Mikkelsen's voice work is chilling. Really hope he doesn't get killed off at the end of this series like the Grand Inquisitor was in S1, he's too damn good.

Looking forward to a better look at post-Clone Wars Mandalore coming up, should be interesting to see how it's changed over the years, and bonus points if Sabine gets to actually do something meaningful! )

Saw Gerrera was great, seeing him go from Clone Wars to R1 was good enough but filling in the gap with Rebels is even better. I like that they're laying the groundwork for other Rebels cells as well, there were some pretty impressive fleets in the last trailer so hopefully this series will see it them come together as a proper Rebel Alliance in time for an epic space battle...

Ahhh....that's old EU Thrawn.

In essence, all bets are off for the moment.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Ahhh....that's old EU Thrawn.

In essence, all bets are off for the moment.

It's really good, but definitely started slow. There are a number of good episodes in the first season, but the first season finale is where the show really found its footing and became legitimately good, IMO.

Is this the cartoon that had a blind jedi dude leading some kid in a cave full of spiders to get something and it turned out the spiders weren't bad or something?

Haven't they already re-written a lot of Post-Jedi stuff in various novels that have been coming out since TFA? Pretty sure one of the recent ones detailed how the remnants of the Empire starting becoming the First Order, but I've not read it so I might be wrong.

Frazzled wrote:Is this the cartoon that had a blind jedi dude leading some kid in a cave full of spiders to get something and it turned out the spiders weren't bad or something?

That's the one!

Paradigm wrote:Haven't they already re-written a lot of Post-Jedi stuff in various novels that have been coming out since TFA? Pretty sure one of the recent ones detailed how the remnants of the Empire starting becoming the First Order, but I've not read it so I might be wrong.

Spoiler:

Leaving him alive and active when the show wraps up does kind of cause the problem of wondering where he is while the rest of the Imperial leadership are incompetently handling Scarif/Yavin/Hoth/Endor ect.

There are a few ways he could be written out without literally killing him, but one way or another I reckon he'll be gone next series if not this one, which is a real shame but probably considered 'necessary' just to keep the canon straight.

The Aftermath novels (two so far) have made no mention of Thrawn at all.

Mind you, they were written well in advance of Season 3 of Rebels, so it could be he remained non-canon at that point.

I really like Rebels having originally caught it by accident while watch tv on holiday. Season one was mixed but season two rocketed alone, not caught up with season three yet.

Never bothered with Clone Wars, is it worth catching up with?

Clone Wars has some great stuff, some bits you can take or leave depending on how much of a Star Wars fan you are and some that's just crap, the good thing is that unlike Rebels it's a series of multi-episode stories rather than one serial one, so you can easily work through the best bits rather than watch all hundred-and-something episodes. There's a lot of call backs to CW in Rebels, so it's worth watching for that alone (if you think Rex is cool now, he's even cooler in his Clone Wars prime!)

Here's what I'd call the essentials:

Clone Wars had Anakin Skywalker. This alone makes it cause spontaneous bouts of diarrhea and involuntary eyegouging.

It literally, absolutely literally could not be good. Literally.

Except Clone Wars treated him properly. It didn't have Hayden Douche-Waffle Christiansen.

Yeah, Clone Wars actually had ANAKIN, not a poorly directed actor playing Anakin.
If anything, the Prequels should have been this:

Ep1 - The Sage begins - basically Phantom Menace & Attack of the Clones rolled into the same movie and cut out all the crappy parts. Meet Anakin at around 12-13 yrs old, stuff happens, Clone Wars begin. The overall story should center around Obi-wan.

Ep2 - The Clone Wars. nuff said

Ep3 - Revenge of the Sith. The Clone wars end. If you fixed the stuff prior to this, then RotS really doesn't need much change.

Basic point here is that the best part of the Prequel era is the actual Clone Wars
I really wish it were easy to see Rebels if you guys are saying it is even better.



Side note: most of the "Rey's parents" theories come from the Clone Wars/Rebels shows.
My favorite is the one in which Obi-wan has a child 9that he doesn't know about) with Satine of Mandalore who turns out to be Sabine from Rebels.
Post Return of the Jedi, Obi-wans ghost tells Luke to find his long-lost daughter. Luke does, and they fail in love and have Rey.

So Rey can be the daughter of Luke, granddaughter of Obi-wan AND inherit the title of Mandalore. Seriously this needs to happen, but is probably too much to ask.

-

Fanboy explosion right there.

In general, I agree with how the prequels needed to be paced. There's a lot of execution problems with the prequels, but the core structural issue is that the Phantom Menace doesn't end with the newly elected Supreme Chancellor coming in to chase off the Separatists from Naboo with the Clone Army.

 Frazzled wrote:
Clone Wars had Anakin Skywalker. This alone makes it cause spontaneous bouts of diarrhea and involuntary eyegouging.

It literally, absolutely literally could not be good. Literally.

He has a great and convincing voice actor, as well as convincing dialogue and actions, so much so that you can see elements of Vader in him. Forget the prequel films - The Clone Wars has a proper Anakin Skywalker in it

 Galef wrote:
When it finally ends up on Netflix (which will be never probably) I'll be able to watch it. But until then, I'll just have to hear about the episodes second hand.

I wouldn't mind owning them, but TV shows are not cheap these days, nor are they often complete

It might be there eventually as Netflix has a deal with Disney for its animated pictures and Marvel movies. This could eventually expand to include Star Wars.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 General Annoyance wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
Clone Wars had Anakin Skywalker. This alone makes it cause spontaneous bouts of diarrhea and involuntary eyegouging.

It literally, absolutely literally could not be good. Literally.

He has a great and convincing voice actor, as well as convincing dialogue and actions, so much so that you can see elements of Vader in him. Forget the prequel films - The Clone Wars has a proper Anakin Skywalker in it

See I actually thought that one of the series' worst problems was Anakin. He's as annoying in Clone Wars as he was in the prequels and he was almost always a drag on episodes. The best Clone Wars episodes were often the ones that barely had him at all and instead focused on the Clones, Obi-Wan, or even Ashoka who ended up being a decent and enjoyable character by the time she left the series (and he was great in her time on Rebels).

 Paradigm wrote:
Clone Wars has some great stuff, some bits you can take or leave depending on how much of a Star Wars fan you are and some that's just crap, the good thing is that unlike Rebels it's a series of multi-episode stories rather than one serial one, so you can easily work through the best bits rather than watch all hundred-and-something episodes. There's a lot of call backs to CW in Rebels, so it's worth watching for that alone (if you think Rex is cool now, he's even cooler in his Clone Wars prime!)

Here's what I'd call the essentials:

Spoiler:

Series 1:
Rookies
The Hidden Enemy
Hostage Crisis


Series 2
Holocron Heist/Cargo of Doom/Children of the Force
Landing at Point Rain (Read- The D-Day episode of Band of Brothers, but with Clones)
Grievous Intrigue/The Deserter
The Mandalore Plot/Voyage of Temptation/Duchess of Mandalore
Bounty Hunters (Star Wars Does The Magnificent Seven)

Series 3:
Clone Cadets/ARC Troopers
The Citadel/Counter Attack/Citadel Rescue

Series 4
Darkness on Umbara/The General/Plan of Dissent/Carnage of Krell (the best thing ever to come out of the Prequel era, utterly brilliant storyline)
Kidnapped/Slaves of the Republic/Escape from Kadavo
Brothers/Revenge

Series 5
Revival/Eminence/Shades of Reason/The Lawless (Darth Maul and Obi-wan at their very best, the reason why their showdown in Rebels is going to be so awesome)
Sabotage/The Jedi Who Knew Too Much/To Catch a Jedi/The Wrong Jedi (Ashoka's best CW arc)

To add to this if you have access to Netflix or are able to find them elsewhere, Give the following episodes from Series 6: The Lost Episodes a watch:
- The Unknown/Conspiracy/Fugitive/Orders
-The Lost One/Voices/Destiny/Sacrifice

The other 2 arcs in the season (An Old Friend/The Rise of Clovis/Crisis at the Heart and The Disappeared Part I & II) are ok, however the former focuses on Padme, space politics & espionage and banking and the later is focused heavily on Jar Jar. Admittedly it's probably the best of the Jar Jar arcs (probably because Mace Windu get's about half the limelight too and is a badass) but that isn't saying much.

However the other 2 arcs (especially the first one) are must-watches. If you're watching or planning on watching Rebels I'd definitely recommend watching the The Unknown/Conspiracy/Fugitive/Orders arc at the very least.

It's a good show and much better done than the clone wars. It was cool that the ghost made an appearance in rouge 1.

Yeah, I can't say enough good things about Rebels. They're willing to do terrible things to their mains, have their mains do terrible things to others through pique or fits of temper, and generally just do a wonderful job portraying their characters. Many moments are simply jaw dropping, generally involving Kanan.

In general, their treatment of post-Jedi force users is nuanced and subtle- I really hope that episode 8 takes some of its cues from them. You really start to see ask what the difference is between good in the eyes of the Jedi and truly good actions- which is always a great thing.

 Galef wrote:


Side note: most of the "Rey's parents" theories come from the Clone Wars/Rebels shows.
My favorite is the one in which Obi-wan has a child 9that he doesn't know about) with Satine of Mandalore who turns out to be Sabine from Rebels.

It's been very soundly confirmed by the story group that Sabine is not the daughter of Satine (it's just coincidence that their names sound similar).
Her mother shows up in a couple of episodes' time, when Sabine returns to Mandalore WITH the darksaber - she is not Satine, because Satine is very clearly still dead (see clone wars for this arc) and her mother is clearly NOT a pacifist.

and the fanboy snoke theories also blow ... (Pablo Hidalgo has a coffee mug that says "and your snoke theory sucks, too").

There's callbacks to TCW in Rebels (certain events are mentioned) and even more so with Saw in the season return.

Elements of the old EU have been put into the new lucasfilm canon (no more G, A, B, C, elephant, Moose, dishwasher canon of old where ONLY "G" canon counted. There is only ONE canon, going forward, and all of the new stuff counts.). The Interdictor cruisers from the old West End rpg, the B-wing origin from that rpg as well (certain details changed, but it WAS still built on Shantipole by a mon calamari engineer - not Ackbar, but I believe he WILL be placed in charge of the rebels B-wing program now they have them). Hell, there's so much taken from the old concept art by Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston - let alone old action figure toys ...

The best thing about Rebels is very little Anakin. He might have been less annoying in TCW than he was in the movies, but the character is still a prat - and one prone to bouts of domestic abuse (TCW season 6, Clovis arc).

Maul is even voiced by the same actor from TCW - Sam Witwer, who also did the voice for Starkiller in the Force unleashed games.
Clancy Brown also turns up here and there in the series (not voicing Savage, Maul's brother, but another character, the former governor of Lothal).

 chromedog wrote:


It's been very soundly confirmed by the story group that Sabine is not the daughter of Satine (it's just coincidence that their names sound similar).
Her mother shows up in a couple of episodes' time, when Sabine returns to Mandalore WITH the darksaber - she is not Satine, because Satine is very clearly still dead (see clone wars for this arc) and her mother is clearly NOT a pacifist.

I've always assumed Sabine would be revealed to be Bo-Katan's daughter (which would actually explain why her name sounds so much like Satine's)

It's not Bo Katan, either.

Her name was mentioned in one of the BTS interviews on starwars.com, and it wasn't that one. I believe it was

The Satine/Sabine name thing is a pure coincidence. No amount of fannish wishlisting will change it.

I tried with Rebels but it was just painful to watch. I really disliked the animation style, it's very lacking compared to Clone Wars. Ezra looks like some sort of reject bin Muppet and their design on the Wookies was beyond awful.

However I enjoyed Clone Wars quite a bit.

Silly question, but do you know which season you tried?

As others haven't unfairly noted the first season was a little bit hit and miss, but definitely ended strongly.

If you're up for giving it another spin, see if you can lay your hands on the DVD or BluRay and have yourself a binge.

Like a lot of modern telly, I find the narrative flows best when binge watched.

Now....Clone Wars and Anakin.... I feel that series did the right job of showing his descent. He wobbles from confident, to outright arrogance - and there's hints that due to the chaos of the Clone Wars (which ultimately corrupted the Jedi Order, hence when Palpatine seized power people actually believed his schtick) he was never properly trained, and there wasn't time to calm him down with meditation or whatever to help re-centre himself.

And it has moments of serious brutality you wouldn't expect from a kid's show (Anakin igniting his lightsaber through a hostage's chest, for instance)