Star Wars Rebels (Disney XD)

[AsteroidMike]

So I only caught a few minutes of the Rebels opener last night, but it looks good so far.

I hate that it's their last season, because I pretty much finished binge-watching all of their seasons and episodes and thoroughly enjoyed them.

[jon-el87]

Expected Saw got get seriously injured during that mission (causing him to end up in the state we saw in him in Rogue One).

[jon-el87]

[jon-el87]

[jon-el87]

[jon-el87]

Apparently, the series finale will be 90 minutes long.

Also, [SPOILER]Ian McDiarmid[/SPOILER] will be taking over as the voice of [SPOILER]the Emperor.[/SPOILER]

[jon-el87]

We knew something like this would happen, when the show began, but [SPOILER]Kanan's death still came as a shock.[/SPOILER] I do must say that they handled it much better [SPOILER]than Han's death in TFA. Han just dies a pointless death and nobody is given a few minutes to mourn him.[/SPOILER] Here, [SPOILER]Kanan is allowed to go out as a hero. The cause of his death also sabotages the production of the Tie-defenders. So, it has a bigger impact than him simply being dead.[/SPOILER] Then we've got the second episode, having the characters reacting to this. Of course, this is the advantage of television. You can do something in one episode, then devote the next episode (several, if you'd like it) to the outcome of said event. In a film, you've only got 2-2,5 hours to tell an entire story... Well, today, you've got only 2-2,5 hours to tell a story + setting up sequels and expanded universes.

[Backward Galaxy]

The first two episodes struggled a bit under the contradiction of it being a children's show. The loss they suffer sends them all into a tailspin and defeatist attitude. And while the loss is a substantial one personally, it's kind of insignificant when put into perspective.

[jon-el87]

Unfortunately, we've known since ANH, that the [SPOILER]battle of Scariff was the first victory for the rebellion. So, this isn't going to end well for the rebels.[/SPOILER] In the last episode ("A World Between Worlds"), I had hoped that Ezra would end up 4-5 years into the future, upon exiting that place. Meaning, he'd find himself around time of the ending of RotJ. You know, being a Jedi padawan, he's kinda the only character that [SPOILER]needs to die, for the sake of continuity.[/SPOILER] Of course, he could pick the same road as Ashoka. Thus being a force wielder, but not a Jedi (for some reason because often equate merely using the force, to being a fully fledged Jedi).

[Backward Galaxy]

This whole season feels weird to me. It hasn't felt like it was building to any one outcome in particular, so I'm not really sure what the plan is for Ezra. Seems like an odd way to end a children's cartoon show to kill him off, but it also seems odd that they'd have him successfully drive the Empire from Lothal and then just... disappear. So, I don't have a solid hold on what they think they're doing with the character, unless the next Star Wars cartoon is also about him.

[jon-el87]

Glad that they didn't kill off Ezra. I was fine with them killing off everyone in Rogue One, but it would've been too much to do it here (not everything needs to be concluded with people dying). Also appreciated the wrap up dialogue.

I was a bit unsure about them liberating Lothal this early, but I thought it worked. It's entirely possible that the empire planned to attack the planet, with the Death Star (to scare other planets into submission). However, the battle of Scariff, the theft of the Death Star plans, going and blowing up Alderaan and then trying to take down the rebel alliance on the Yavin moon (not to mention the Death Star being destroyed), delayed such plans. And, afterwards, they were too busy with the galactic war against the rebellion, to care about this planet. The characters liberating Lothal, also gives their hard work meaning. In the end, the Death Star plans will be stolen by Jyn Erso. The Death Star will be destroyed by Luke Skywalker and the empire will be taken down by these other people. To the people of Lothal, none of that matters. What matters is the people, that liberated them. They couldn't care less about Luke Skywalker, because what mattered (in their time of need) was Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarus and the rest of the Ghost crew.

Looking forward to Dave Filoni's next project. Hopefully, it's a project that takes place between RotJ and TFA. They haven't explored that time period, in the new canon. So far, it's been the empire era (in both films, TV shows and comic books) or the sequel era (movies and the Poe Dameron comic). Surely, something happened in the 30-something years between episode 6 and 7.

[Backward Galaxy]

I liked the bits with Palpatine, but the rest did nothing for me. Really felt like a cop-out to keep Ezra alive, but have him go missing until after the events of Jedi. All that tells me is that Ezra had no business being a prequel character.

I feel like this series peaked at the Sith Temple.

[AsteroidMike]

Not killing Ezra or Thrawn was one of the best things they did with the finale, since Thrawn is one of the biggest EU characters out there.

It's a bit disappointing to see this season get only 14 episodes and not 20 or so like the previous seasons because I thought it was gonna have some more involvement with the main Rebellion but I can live with that. Plus there's only so much that can happen before the events of Rogue One take place.

[jon-el87]

https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-resistance-set-for-fall-debut

[AsteroidMike]

So....maybe we will get to see where Ezra and Thrawn are after the end of Rebels? I hope?