Star Wars Rebels

[GreenLantern]

Ezra could possibly start his turn thinking that he could have saved Ashoka from her inevitable death?

Watching her die is what triggers all of his anger and hate? He already has quite the temper on him. So the Inquisitor was a Jedi before he turned to the dark side? And being killed freed him? And Kanan giving up on protecting Ezra got him Knighted, and that was a signal that he should always give up on Ezra? That part confused me.

[CaptainCrunch]

I think that she will die and Ezra will blame himself for not being strong enough to save her. He will want revenge against Vader.

The inquisitor was a Jedi that much was pretty clear, but to your last point it wasn't that Kanaan gave up on protecting Ezra. I believe that the lesson learned was that you don't always have to fight to protect something, there are other ways like fleeing. We even heard Ahsoka learn that lesson when she stated that she knew another way.

Basically Kanaan was fighting against overwhelming odds and it was a foolish fight, which was what happened to the Jedi. He had to learn that it is ok to seek the less resistant way.

Just my 2 cents.

[GreenLantern]

Has anyone read Rise of the Empire? It is a compilation of A New Dawn (Which is Kanaan's back story) and Tarkin with some short stories to tie them together. As far as I can tell it is canon.

Also the Kanaan comic series? Seems to be a prequel about his childhood post Clone Wars?

I'm reading Malazan right now but just not into the series at all, want to take a step away and read some canon Star Wars.. but figuring out canon these days is difficult. It is all such a jumbled mess.

[CaptainCrunch]

I read New Dawn and Tarkin, I wasn't really blown away by either of them to be honest. And After Math was just really awful.

With the end of the old EU they also shuffled off some really solid writers, that had gained a real sense of the Star Wars universe. The writers that they bought in aren't very good, and they're all over the place.

I'm trying to read Twilight Company right now, but its almost like a slog to get through the first few channels.

Oh and the book Sith Lords, I was really looking forward to that, thinking that it would almost be a buddy cop type of book with two immensely powerful and evil dudes, but it was beyond bad.

[GreenLantern]

Well that just sucks, so basically there is nothing worth reading in the SWU right now. Why are they not working on this!

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

Well that just sucks, so basically there is nothing worth reading in the SWU right now. Why are they not working on this!

I wish they would, it would be nice to see books about the Rise of the First Order, unfortunately, because of the whole Who's Snoke and how did Kylo fall being the big questions in the movies, they are hamstrung on the books where they can't reveal much.

I also think that there is more of an emphasis on the kids stuff.

But the shame is that the best writers were part of the old EU deal, and there were some amazingly solid books down by people like Stover and Karpyshyn Anderson and Denning to name a few that just got Star Wars.

Of course at the same time there were monumental piles of crap like the work of Karen Traviss

With the new Canon stuff, the writers so far have been really not good in terms of actual writing and I have a gut feeling that either Disney books doesn't know what the new Canon timeline looks like or they don't want to reveal too much.

[GreenLantern]

No new episode this week I guess but pretty exciting time for the FFG Star Wars products. The Star Wars Card Game just got Ashoka announced in their latest expansion and X-Wing has Ghost coming up as well for future release. Armada and my personal favorite Imperial Assault are left on the list so I am very interested to see what they do. We got our first hint of the Rebels universe in the latest Bespin expansion where the Lando's skirmish (player vs. player version of the game) takes you to Lothal.

Quote:
Skirmish games can also reap the benefits of Lando Calrissian’s support. An entirely new skirmish map invites you to travel to a Lothal Safehouse, where you’ll struggle to recover artifacts or hidden shipments of weapons before your opponent.
Pretty cool to see the influence of this show spreading across the Star Wars merchandise machine. I am curious how they will plan to do it though. The core box for IA takes place right after the death star blows up, the first expansion takes you to Tattooine to look for Han Solo who is there trying to dig up some information. The second expansion took us to Hoth after the Imperials had destroyed the Rebel base to try and recover data and sabotage the Imperials from establishing a presence. Now this expansion has us working with Lando, which I find weird, was he working with the Rebels before Han showed up? It seemed like the Rebels they were unaware of him. The game claims this was all happening behind the scenes, spoilered for size.

Spoiler!

Now, The Bespin Gambit takes you to another iconic location from the Star Wars universe: Cloud City. Under the control of Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian, Cloud City has become a prosperous center of industry and tourism—and a center for the undercover conflict between Rebel spies and ISB agents.

The Bespin Gambit’s contributions to the campaign game center on an entirely new mini-campaign. On Cloud City, an agent working under the command of Lando Calrissian has infiltrated the Imperial Security Bureau and secured a number of top-secret military codes. Unfortunately, contact with the agent was lost immediately afterwards. The stage is set for a shadow war—the Alliance has dispatched a few covert operatives to find the missing agent, even as the ISB races to recover its missing codes.

[CaptainCrunch]

This weeks episode was a rerun of a Princess on Lothal. It was a decent episode, mainly because you get introduced to a teenaged Leia, and the voice actress did a pretty good job.

Outside of closing the book on Ezra's character, this was pretty light hearted, especially when Zeb made the escape look too real.

Its funny that we keep seeing winks to the old EU.

The Imperial Carrier was the same character that was introduced in the very under rated rebellion game.

The Alderaan ships looks like the old Hammer Heads from the KOTOR II games and the SWTOR online game.

Next Weeks episode is a chopper centric episode. I originally hated the droid, but I've actually grown pretty fond of him.

Filoni when interviewed talked about R2D2 being like the family dog, friendly, always wanting to please you and do what you say.

Chopper is the family cap, foul tempered, lazy and willing to take his shots, but when the chips are done he comes through and then lets you know about it forever.

After next weeks episode there are three episodes left in the season.

some thoughts that I had and where I think things will go

Spoiler!

Its clear that the last time that Ahsoka saw Ani wasn't when she left the order, she hinted that she went on a mission for the Jedi at the end of the Clone Wars. Did she witness the execution of Order 66? Its clear that she felt that Vader = Anakin but wasn't sure until she was presented with the vision of Vader.

Its interesting that Kanaan was dubbed a Jedi Knight under his assumed name and not his real name.

If Darth Maul is the old master and word is that the Sith looking temple is on Malachar I have to wonder what Maul's intent and mission is.

When we last saw Maul he was being tortured by Sidious who plainly stated. "Don't worry I won't kill you, I still have a use for you". Is Maul ultimately going to try to turn Ezra over to Vader or even worse, the Emperor?

Ok, here are my guesses as things get clearer.

The rebels are going to get to Malichor and find the temple. The Force strong are going to be presented with darker visions then the ones on Lothal since this is a nexus of Dark Side Energy.

For Kanaan we are going to finally see his last moments in the Jedi Order where he fled and left his master to die.

For Ahsoka she is going to see a vision of what Vader has really become, not some still good in him fallen Jedi, but the monster he is right now, somehow the vision will show her Anakin killing children.

For Ezra, he finds Maul, whether he's real or a vision I'm not sure. But he's going to be the polar opposite of Yoda. He's going to sell Ezra on the whole Sith use their power to gain knowledge. He's going to use Ezra's desire to fight for his friends against him, and the timing couldn't be better because Vader and the Inquisitors are going to show up, and with Maul's promises of power ringing in his head he's going to run to save his friends.

Ahsoka is going to confront Vader, they are going to have a back and forth, and Ahsoka is not going to find any of Anakin in Vader, he will try to unbalance her by making her feel responsible.

Meanwhile Kanaan is going to be taking on the 5th brother and the 7th sister, and he's going to get over whelmed.

Just as Ezra arrives, Vader strikes down Ahsoka cruelly and begins to move towards Kanaan.

At that moment Ezra hears Mauls voice in his head. "Unleash your anger and pain, its the only way to save your friends." Ezra screams out in rage and runs into battle, he kills the brother (face it the sister is a way cooler and developed character) in a hugely impressive force powerful way. The Sister pauses and so does Vader. Ezra saves the survivor of the ghost crew by force throwing them out of the temple.

Vader looks on as Ezra in a rage turns on the Sister and they begin to duel, He goads Ezra and Ezra begins to take over the fight feeling more and more powerful.

In my world Ezra cuts off the Sisters sword arm and then turns on Vader and simply says "You" and begins to walk towards Vader. Vader deactivates his light saber and simply says "You do not have enough power to defeat me . . . yet"

Ezra stands undecided and then de-activates his light saber and steps towards Vader as the Sister smiles cruelly and stands up.

We flash outside of the Temple, Kanaan is hammering on the door calling Ezra's name. We suddenly hear the roar of tie fighters, and we hear Ahsoka's voice in the wind, it simply says "flee".

The ghost crew starts running towards their ship, Kanaan takes one look back with tears, and then we go to credits"

[GreenLantern]

Hrmm now that would be a cool way to end the season and also start Season 3 with him in the hands of the Empire.

I also noticed on the Wikipedia page that "Twilight of the Apprentice" part 1 and 2 release on the same day, March 30th. So we've only got 3 weeks left.

I also agree about Chopper, I think that character is really well done especially how he picks on Zeb and Ezra, hah. Actually makes me chuckle sometimes. I really hope to see him in some board games.

[CaptainCrunch]

Sam Witwer who voiced Star Killer in the Force unleashed games and has played Darth Maul, the Emperor and a lot of other voices is the voice of Maul in the second part of the season ender.

I would love to see Season 3 starting with Ezra and Vader striding into the throne room on Coruscant and hearing Palpatine saying "I'm looking forward to completing your training" to Ezra.

[GreenLantern]

Man tonight's episode was great. Chopper is such a great character. I loved the way they showed the sad part of being a droid, I always wondered how these beings lived as basically slaves being mistreated. I guess that is where the Droid Uprising with IG-88 came into play?

I loved the parody to C3P0 and R2D2 at the end, especially the look on the crews face. I look forward to those two bickering back and forth. Only three episodes left now I expect the stakes to get pretty high starting next week.

I also enjoyed the Ryloth campaign reference as I am currently on those episodes in season 1 of Clone wars.

Also, am I missing something really obvious which planet that is they are going to for the base? Or is this going to be 'new' material for us? The only planet with a Rebel base I can think of is Hoth and that planet looked more like Mars than snow and ice.

[photon]

Possible spoilers though really isn't a surprise, preview for the season finale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0mHM5vIirE

[dammage79]

Oh man! A whole hour Finale! So down. So pumped for the eventual duel.

[Regulator75]

[Regulator75]

Good episode tonight, but I thought we'd see Vader.

[GreenLantern]

Ya it was very fillerish, but I guess they get a bit more background on the base which is good. Highlight of it was the bounty hunter saying she wished she had a jet pack.

Next weeks finale looks to be pretty solid though.

[CaptainCrunch]

I think the whole point of the episode was the concept that the Force Users and the normals were preparing to go their separate ways, and nobody is convinced that they're coming back from taking the fight to the Inquisitors and Vader.

It was a fun little episode and it followed the Buffy formula where you have a light little thought episode where everyone is happy and then you drop the roof on them.

[GreenLantern]

He's alive!! I asked this question last week I will ask it again, is there any significance in the EU or Legends to the planet they chose for the base? Or is this brand new intel for us?

[CaptainCrunch]

I don't think that there is anything really significant EU wise about the planet. Remember that this is taking place about 3 years before ANH I think, so at some point they're going to have to move to Dantooine.

Here's my question. Ezra was trying to connect with those Spiders, but they seemed to get agitated by him and he couldn't form a connection.

Does this mean that the Spiders are immune to the Force, or is Ezra's simmering Anger and slide towards the dark side blocking his actions?

[GreenLantern]

I also noticed the dark side music playing during those attempts, particularly at the end there.. foreshadowing of something for sure. I actually meant to comment about that and forgot until you mentioned this.. setting us up for what is about to happen. It would be really cool to see him with Vader for part of season 3.