New Star Wars cartoon - SW Rebels - is quite good!

[JediTricks]

A few weeks ago I was invited to an early screening of the premiere tv movie for Star Wars Rebels, along with one of the regular series episodes, hosted by showrunner Dave Filoni.

If you haven't heard about it yet, it's a CGI cartoon that takes place 14 years after Episode III and 5 years before Ep IV, a small crew of rebels strikes out against the Empire, one of them a former Padawan in hiding now teaching the Force to a kid who is strong with the Force and has just joined the crew.

I really enjoyed this show, the episode more than the movie even, but the movie too. While this is in the same style as The Clone Wars, that style has been toned down quite a bit and the characters are more a focus of the storytelling than a giant war. Also, this show is trying to reclaim that classic Star Wars trilogy feeling, it looks more like the original Star Wars saga and it sounds more like it and has more of that music and even "camera" style, not to mention more of the heart and the humor of the Original Trilogy. If The Clone Wars was the CGI cartoon from the Prequels, Rebels definitely wants to be the touchstone for the originals, and for me, that made it such a great experience.

It's also got that adventure, that heart of daring do. Yet it doesn't play the easy black and white game, there are intriguing shades of gray that our protagonists have to live in.

I really enjoyed SW Rebels, I know there's a lot of review there but it's only because I'm more passionate than I expected about the series already, the premiere hit me where that kid who just saw ROTJ for the first time in theaters lives, and Rise of the Old Masters told an even bolder story confirming this show has somewhere deep to go.

Now to keep it on the air, because the last Disney XD series I felt this way about, Tron Uprising, only got a single season, and Rebels is even better than that one.

Here's my super-long review of the premiere movie "Spark of Rebellion" and of the episode "Rise of the Old Masters":
http://www.sirstevesguide.com/2014/09/1 ... d-masters/

[Almighty Unicron]

I'll give it a shot. I hate the wooden designs (it, along with the inexplicable time slot on Adult Swim/Toonami turned me off of Clone Wars) but I love the original trilogy. Do we know if Ackbar or Mon Mothra appear?

[Dominic]

SW left such a bad taste in my mouth between '06 and '08 that I am done. (Not even sure I can follow Kieron Gillen on to the Darth Vader book that Marvel will be publishing.)

So far, the track record for tertiary content relating to and following Episode III has been mixed.

Ostrander's run (concurrent with the prequels and ending on page with Episode III) was good up until the end, when it dipped in to fanfic territory. (The only one of Ostrander's characters to die during Order 66 was the one who died on screen in the movie because he could not write around it. And, even then, there were fans who tried to argue around it.) To add insult to injury, Vos not only survived Order 66, he survived because he was super-duper awesome.

"Dark Times" had promise. But, after Ostrander's run, I just did not trust Dark Horse.

The "Clone Wars" movie was bad enough to put me off the series from the start. And, from what I gather, it never got a proper ending (because apparently they cannot okay killing off the kid who is more or less obligated to die).

I see "Rebels" having the same problem. Will Disney really let the writers kill off the main characters? Because that is the only way for the series to end without being stupid.

[Almighty Unicron]

Literally the only SW tertiary media I can stomach are the Thrawn books and KOTOR 2 (I can't stand KOTOR 1 but I'm a sucker for Chris Avellone's work on KOTOR 2 even if it's a buggy mess)

[Shockwave]

There have been some good tertiary stories. Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire was a particularly good one as are the comics dealing with the republic from about 1000 years before Luke. Dark Lords of the Sith, Fall of the Sith Empire, Tales of the Jedi, and it's sequels were all pretty good. The Timothy Zahn books.... the story was good but the writing was terrible. To this day, it still irks me to no end when ever someone says "point" instead of "Good point" or "that's a good point" or "I agree with your point." I've travelled all over this globe, met thousands of people from thousands of backgrounds and hundreds of different languages and accents and never, anywhere ever, have I ever heard anyone just say "point" when agreeing with someone. And, I actually thought at some parts that characters were telling each other to point at things and got confused and had to reread those sections like six times just figure out what the characters were saying. What an asshole. Fortunately, so far, I've only met one person in real life who actually speaks that way. Fortunately, my contact with said individual is minimal.

Not sure I'd really count video games for content on something like this since the quality of said games is more likely to be carried on gameplay and graphics rather than story. But, in that vein, Rogue Squadron on 64 was pretty good as was Shadows of the Empire, Battlefront I and II were both good, The Lego Star Wars games are really fun... Seriously, when it comes to video games, I've probably played the Battle of Hoth like six different ways.

[JediTricks]

I'll give it a shot. I hate the wooden designs (it, along with the inexplicable time slot on Adult Swim/Toonami turned me off of Clone Wars) but I love the original trilogy. Do we know if Ackbar or Mon Mothra appear?

Wooden how? The cartoon faces, or something else?

I don't think any word on Ackbar or Mon Mothman (her name is hilarious no matter what) has been put before my eyes. I envision it being something that starts small and slowly joins with the alliance over the course of several seasons, but I could be way off base.

SW left such a bad taste in my mouth between '06 and '08 that I am done. (Not even sure I can follow Kieron Gillen on to the Darth Vader book that Marvel will be publishing.)

So far, the track record for tertiary content relating to and following Episode III has been mixed.

Ostrander's run (concurrent with the prequels and ending on page with Episode III) was good up until the end, when it dipped in to fanfic territory. (The only one of Ostrander's characters to die during Order 66 was the one who died on screen in the movie because he could not write around it. And, even then, there were fans who tried to argue around it.) To add insult to injury, Vos not only survived Order 66, he survived because he was super-duper awesome.

"Dark Times" had promise. But, after Ostrander's run, I just did not trust Dark Horse.

The "Clone Wars" movie was bad enough to put me off the series from the start. And, from what I gather, it never got a proper ending (because apparently they cannot okay killing off the kid who is more or less obligated to die).

I see "Rebels" having the same problem. Will Disney really let the writers kill off the main characters? Because that is the only way for the series to end without being stupid.

Heh heh, I mistook Kieron Gillen for Karen Gillan for a second.

Here's the thing, this show doesn't feel anything like the post-Ep 3 content out there to me, this feels entirely different and thank goodness for that. This is as unlike Quinlan Vos' survival as it gets in tone, although I suppose on the surface there are similarities. I definitely didn't feel like Kanan Jarrus was anywhere in that ballpark of Vos' arc though, Jarrus is much more flawed but centered so he's angry at the universe but not aiming towards the dark side.

Clone Wars movie wasn't that bad IMO, but Rebels is also very much not like that at all. And Clone Wars had an ending of sorts, but Disney added content to the tail so it got a second ending that was tonal. I feel like Ahsoka had to go though, there was no way to step into Episode III with her in the order, it would have shifted things too much... hell, it DID shift things too much. Rebels won't be like that, I am confident, based on the significant detachment from the main characters it enjoys.

IMO, Rebels doesn't entirely need an ending, it can say "and they joined the Alliance and served bravely" or "and they kept on fighting the Empire without crossing the saga's path". That's the good part about having it distanced from big events.

Literally the only SW tertiary media I can stomach are the Thrawn books and KOTOR 2 (I can't stand KOTOR 1 but I'm a sucker for Chris Avellone's work on KOTOR 2 even if it's a buggy mess)

I do love me the Thrawn trilogy, haven't read the sequel books (I have the second one, haven't gotten the first yet). Surprised KOTOR2 is your thing, it's an unfinished work that was pushed out the door so the story is fragmented and the program is, as you said, a buggy mess.

There have been some good tertiary stories. Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire was a particularly good one as are the comics dealing with the republic from about 1000 years before Luke. Dark Lords of the Sith, Fall of the Sith Empire, Tales of the Jedi, and it's sequels were all pretty good. The Timothy Zahn books.... the story was good but the writing was terrible. To this day, it still irks me to no end when ever someone says "point" instead of "Good point" or "that's a good point" or "I agree with your point." I've travelled all over this globe, met thousands of people from thousands of backgrounds and hundreds of different languages and accents and never, anywhere ever, have I ever heard anyone just say "point" when agreeing with someone. And, I actually thought at some parts that characters were telling each other to point at things and got confused and had to reread those sections like six times just figure out what the characters were saying. What an asshole. Fortunately, so far, I've only met one person in real life who actually speaks that way. Fortunately, my contact with said individual is minimal.

Huh, that never bothered me at all, that's a very specific one. I found most of the dialogue there pretty readable, but I haven't read it in 18 years.

Not sure I'd really count video games for content on something like this since the quality of said games is more likely to be carried on gameplay and graphics rather than story. But, in that vein, Rogue Squadron on 64 was pretty good as was Shadows of the Empire, Battlefront I and II were both good, The Lego Star Wars games are really fun... Seriously, when it comes to video games, I've probably played the Battle of Hoth like six different ways.

All good choices, although the Clone Wars LEGO game wasn't quite as good as the other 2. I also love The Force Unleashed, the sequel is technically great but lacks passion.

[Shockwave]

Yeah the "Point" thing is probably a thing that only bugs me. It's just that it was so unusual and seemed so out of left field when it happened that it completely took me out of the narrative and really fumbled the pacing. If I'd been familiar with it as it was used it probably wouldn't have bothered me. The rest of the dialogue was fine, likely owing to the fact that a lot of it was reused from the movies (Han Solo's catchphrase should be "I have a bad feeling about this.")

As for the topic at hand, I'm actually excited for this. I like the idea of seeing other parts of the rebellion.

[Almighty Unicron]

[

Literally the only SW tertiary media I can stomach are the Thrawn books and KOTOR 2 (I can't stand KOTOR 1 but I'm a sucker for Chris Avellone's work on KOTOR 2 even if it's a buggy mess)

I do love me the Thrawn trilogy, haven't read the sequel books (I have the second one, haven't gotten the first yet). Surprised KOTOR2 is your thing, it's an unfinished work that was pushed out the door so the story is fragmented and the program is, as you said, a buggy mess.

It's the most refreshing and aggressively deconstructive take on the Star Wars mythos and the force to date- which explains why Lucas hated it so much. Kreia/Trayya remains one of my top 10 video game characters, which is populated by like 4 other people made by Chris Avellone (seriously, that dude is my idol)

[Dominic]

Not a fan of the Thrawn series. It had too many contrivances for my liking. ("While running from the Empire, Luke finds himself captured by pirates. Hilarity ensues when the same Imperials that were chasing Luke stop by the pirates' hideout to solicit a bribe. Things get even crazier when one of the pirates turns out to be an assassin whose sole purpose in life is to kill Luke! Can Luke Skywalker get out of this one, maybe with a little help from the force?")

Here's the thing, this show doesn't feel anything like the post-Ep 3 content out there to me, this feels entirely different and thank goodness for that. This is as unlike Quinlan Vos' survival as it gets in tone, although I suppose on the surface there are similarities.

There is no way to know until "Rebels" ends.

But, SW no longer has the credibility needed for me to stick around and find out. If nothing else, if Dark Horse (licensing from Lucas Film) was not going to kill Vos (and actually had him survive in the stupidest way possible), then I have real doubts that any of the main characters in "Rebels" (including a Jedi?!?!?) are going to be killed off before Episode 4 "happens".

"Dark Times" got it thematically right, even if they execution was off in places. Any Jedi that survived Order 66 (through luck or aggression) had 3 choices: -suicidal last stand, guerilla tactics or just quitting. The first two options obligate the character to die.

I got in to Ostrander's run on "Star Wars" with the assumption that the books had a sunset provision (Episode III) and that most of the characters were going to die. The only main character from Ostrander's run (as "main" as a character from a tie-in book can be) to die was Secura. And, *that* was only because she died on-screen in the movie. As soon as I saw that Vos' death got cut from the movie, I started worrying that Dark Horse would back-pedal.

I feel like Ahsoka had to go though, there was no way to step into Episode III with her in the order, it would have shifted things too much... hell, it DID shift things too much.

The fact that Tano survived "Clone Wars" at all makes me doubt that Disney will let "Rebels" end correctly.

IMO, Rebels doesn't entirely need an ending, it can say "and they joined the Alliance and served bravely" or "and they kept on fighting the Empire without crossing the saga's path".

The point of the events of the movies is that they are so big that they cannot be ignored. Everybody heard about the Death Star blowing up a planet in Episode 4. Everybody heard what happened to both Death Stars. (The riot montage at the end of Episode VI confirms this.)

Similarly, in Episode III, Order 66 happened everywhere and could not be ignored. The comics trying to work around it is a big part of what ruined the comics.

Vos surviving (stupidly), despite Dark Horse taking an extra year to reconcile contradictory elements of the movie with the early draft of the script they had to work from when making the adaptation, killed my interest in the comics (and greatly diminished my interest in SW as a whole). As promising as "Dark Times" was, I was not going to sign on for another 2+ years of comics only to have a good run terdified by a needlessly stupid ending.

I will probably given the Gillen SW book a shot. I might even add it to my pull-file. But, SW has given me little reason to be optimistic over the last 7 years.

[BWprowl]

I saw the preview for this a couple weeks back and was amazed at how bad I thought it looked. Everything looks so painfully generic and by-the-book and safe. I especially love our scrappy everyboy hero who's not destined for greatness at all.

"Who is that kid?!"
"What happened out there?" "He did."

Seriously? It oughta be illegal to write lines like that in this day and age.

Really though, "teenage girl graffiti artist Mandalorian" is where I had to draw the line and say "I'm done".

Oh, I get it! When Obi-Wan's recording mentions 'A New Hope', that's THE NAME OF THE MOVIE! Four stars, cartoon of the year.