Darth Vader's New Look (Rebels)

Vader looks sinister as **** in the season 2 preview clip. Those eyes...*shivers* gives me the willies!

 

As another example of this scowling artistic style, and how silly it is, take a look at the latest GameInformer magazine cover:



EVERYONE is scowling..............................not just the villains (and this style makes Darth Maul look like he's doing a Scar from Lion King impression)........Vader has a different helmet than the Rebels look, but his mask brow is still distinctly furrowed in a silly way.

It's as if there is a way of thinking among artists these days that to make a character look serious and intimidating, then he must scowl. There are many other facial expressions that can better personify the characters and still make them look determined, pumped up etc. (if the heroes) and intimidating, scary etc. (if the villains).

Yoda and Obi-Wan look particularly goofy and way out of character. Chewie looks like he's going to eat someone, Ahsoka looks like she's fallen to the Dark Side, and Leia looks like she's eaten something sour. Only Han looks marginally normal, but his brow is still accentuated enough to make him look a little goofy.
Yes, it's an artistic style, and is acceptable in its own right. However, it's the only style we're getting, at this point!!! I'd like to see some alternate styles, with fresh teams that

 

Yeah... except of course that is NOTHING to do with Rebels, at all, beyond a few characters shared by both.

 

It's the only game in town!!! It's all that we've got, so of course people will watch it and convince themselves that it is the best thing available.....it's the only thing available! When you are the only Star Wars show out there, you know people will show up in droves to watch it.

However, TCW and Rebels especially haven't even been that big of blockbuster successes...............why? Because it is good........not GREAT. Why must we settle for mediocrity just because it is an animated show? Just look to the Batman The Animated Series and Xmen cartoons ---- brilliant in their own right, very interesting art styles, brilliant music that harnessed Danny Elfman's score but came up with fresh themes each episode.

Star Wars deserves quality like this and deserves a show (or multiple shows) that are not only good, acceptable to many fans, but which has every fan chomping at the bit each week for the next episode and is so good that even casual non-Star Wars fans are drawn to watch it because it is so good that it gets national attention.

Yes, this can be done. No, it most likely can't be done with Filoni and his team. They had almost 8 years and 2 distinct shows to prove/accomplish that. They continue to fail, and you (and others that share your sentiment) continue to give him a free pass because you happen to find the show reasonably enjoyable.

You are missing the bigger picture, and the bigger opportunities that are failing to be realized by having this one average-at-best team monopolize the Star Wars animated universe (and Star Wars canon itself) from 2005 to 2015.

 

It's an example of the silliness of that artistic style, which Filoni is championing with his Rebels Vader look.

 

No I'm not. You are saying that YOU don't enjoy it... therefore it's bad. Which is wrong. They are about as realistically successful as the show would be with any style under any producer given the audience they are primarily targeting. BTAS was NOT actually all that successful financially/numbers wise - beyond it being the only game in town for the duration of it's running. X-Men was a decent enough show but the animation was terrible and the voice acting was hammy beyond belief, in my opinion - hardly a pinnacle above anything the SW crew have managed thus far.

You don't like it, I get it I really do. But you have no proof that you're totally hypothetical super-realistic looking based on movie-designs alternative would be any better objectively. Until you do I really don't see any reason to consider this show weaker for making choices that you personally do not like, and I personally do.

Edit to add: The 'silly scowling style' was chosen entirely independently of Filoni who only has any executive power over Rebels right now. And I missed the bit where EVERY character in Rebels is permanently glowering as they are in that picture, which suggests that it's not even a Vader's look issue, it's an art issue in its own right. And one Filoni has nothing to do with.

 

As opposed to Imperials and droids who speak Queen's Received English? Or Jamacan patois Gungans? Or any of the other regional accents and speaking styles employed?

Because the Chosen One/future Darth Vader must be a grim, humorless stodge, right? You must have missed this bit in AOTC then:

Again, so what?

Skinny slaves...imagine that...they should be Ewok-like butterballs all that rich food their Imperial Masters feed them...

As opposed to green, or blue, or whatever...again, so what?

Not doing this Round # whatever...

Considering they delivered 5.5 of a planned 8 (minimum) seasons of CW, and 1 season of Rebels (with #2 about to start, and at least one season after that more than likely), and a planned series of some sort after that, I'd say that they've done one heck of a fine job at it too.

I look at Clone Wars and I see Star Wars. I look at Rebels and I see Star Wars. If they were running around in Federation starships wearing "monster maroons", you might have a point. They aren't.

So Disney should cater to your artistic choices and strive to impress you and the rest of us, who like what we've seen so far just fine should what? Go do something else?

Because it falls well outside the experience of many if not most of us who are watching the same show as you (at least we think we are), and coming to radically different conclusions.

Because some folks on here are so antagonistic towards Filoni.

Quite easily, thank you.

You mean like Ewoks? Who also got their own multi-season animated series that was well-received and several tv movies?

Since it was the performance, not the costume, I'd say not at all. You're also continuing to cross-contaminate expectations across media. What plays well in animation doesn't always translate well in LA, and LA-level verisimilitude doesn't always work effectively in animation.

That said, I'd be all over a CG Star Wars sereies animated by Bioware like they did for the Old Republic MMPORG, but it would be too expensive (so I'm told) for the ratings animation gets:

 

Say what? From earlier in the thread:

New leadership and a fresh team seems to imply being fired from the project...........

 

No, what it means is that while it would be great to have a fresh team on Rebels in particular, if that can't happen, then at least I long for there to be one or more different teams putting out some quality star wars tv material, so that Filoni can be challenged and his artistic style compared with potentially more faithful alternatives

 

Kev snowmane - - - in reply to your post, you mention a ton of examples from the PT that I find just as grating and distasteful as Ziro the hutt. They are just as low quality and dont mesh well with the quality that vaulted the OT to its revered status.

And ewoks, while looking like teddy bears cant possibly be compared with explicitly babyish english expressions like snips, sky guy, stinky etc

 

Sounds like you are shifting your argument from what it was initially presented as, but what you are saying now doesn't match with what you said to your positron earlier.

 

1) In your opinion.

2) QRE Imperials and droids are OT, not PT. So are Ewoks.

Thanks for playing.

Because people NEVER use nicknames or used "childish" language, anything like that in the OT...:





Thanks for playing.

 

No, it's called clarifying an earlier response --- regardless, you seem to be avoiding discussing my actual posts and trying to nitpick wording instead

The replies that you post imply an.....inexperienced approach to discussion. Of course it's my opinion......I wouldn't be posting it otherwise, and that seems to be your first reply to every one of my posts.

Did you seriously just compare the genuinely funny and ONE-TIME-ONLY jokes of Scruffy looking Nerfherder and Laugh it up Fuzzball to Anakin and Ahsoka's constant Snips and Skyguy exchanges? Those jokes in the OT were GREAT, classic moments that fit the moment and were not babyish in any way --- just genuinely playful. They were also never used again. The Snips/Skyguy exchange is inherently babyish and was beaten to death throughout the Clone Wars movie, and then "reprised" a number of times in the actual show. Thank God they lessened its usage as TCW series went on, though ---- I think even Filoni understood that it wasn't well received by many fans.

 

I think you're untitled to express yourself, but I have to say your topics/posts are clearly based on your biased opinion and very obsession based as you have it in against Filoni and TCW, but its up to mods to decide whether this behavior is spam/trolling as you made quite few of these kinda critic threads

In-universe Anakin did not like being called Skyguy, and he used Snips in retaliation to annoy her like she was annoying him. She was snippy( short-tempered, snappish, unduly brief) . This was more expressed in the novelization of The Clone Wars movie the animosity and tantrums Anakin was going through. So I don't see the big deal some people have with it, plus Tano was like 13, and likely also using it very affectionately as she likely found Anakin attractive as he's was handsome and something of a celebrity. Tano also had some darkside traits and some seeds eventually planted by Anakin during her apprenticeship to him unknowingly to the both of them. Lucas always liked the older humor he grew up with, which may be corny today but its more family orientated and Lucas always wanted kids as a major part of the main audience for his franchise.

 

Funny? Care to tell me what a Nerfherder is?

At least Skyguy is pun on Anakin's surname and Snips describes Ahsoka's initial personality.

 

Not when you shift from calling for Filoni to be fired due to creative differences you have with him (yes I remember that thread), then come here and say that decide to qualify that response by saying essentially "Well I didn't really mean that" that is shifting your position, or back tracking. As to not discussing your posts, what a load of bull**** when I have responded and discussed to your posts numerous times. And yes, I will attack your argument for inconsistencies, perceived or otherwise.

Edit to add: And I think I am done posting responses to your stuff.

 

@ darkspine10
What's not to understand? It's a sheep herder, caring for Star Wars sheeps. It's a classical sci-fy trope in action.

 

But what's a Nerf? They were never mentioned before or afterwards, which leaves that line sounding really weird to my ears.

 

Did that part of the joke go over your head? That's one of the whole reasons it is funny ----- she didn't call him a turd (or poo-doo) or something sophmoric from our own English language.......she called him something completely new to us, clearly an insult, and its left up to us to picture in our heads exactly what she is referring to.

Maybe it's a generational thing...............clearly we have completely different senses of humor, if things like Skyguy and Snips gets you to laugh and things like the Scruffy Looking Nerfherder exchange went way over your head or even was on the same level of humor to you. No wonder you give Ziro the Hutt and Stinky a pass.

It's called a softening of rhetoric ---- yes, I created a thread with the title called "The case for firing Dave Filoni" ---- yes, I would love to see him off of his lead role in the one and only Star Wars series that we have at this point. I've posted the reasons why, and Vader's look is the latest thing to add to that list. That thread was considered too inflammatory, and upon reflection, I agreed that perhaps it was too harsh to call for a guy's explicit firing. So I softened my view in this thread to just long for some new leadership to emerge and/or for one or more new teams to create some fresh animated TV/movie content for the Star Wars canon, so that we can at least give Filoni some competition and some other products to be compared to. He has so many free passes over the past 8 years since he is the only game in town.

And what's with the cussing? I wasn't insulting you or anything --- if you choose not to reply anymore to my posts, that's fine since clearly we have differing opinions and you seem to be worked up. Thanks for your past replies, for what its worth/

 

Yes...yes I did...and quite correctly too.

In you opinion. (Yes, I am going to KEEP saying that because your posts come across as if you were Speaking the Word of God on the subject.)

I had no problem with it at all. Neither did most people, or the show wouldn't've been on it's way to an 8+year run (truncated by the Disney buy out). Nor would that team have been given the chance to do Rebels.

But some people just seem to think that if the new material doestn't treat the OT like kriffing Tolkien, then its wrong/badfun.

 

Like I said, it's a common sci-fy trope. Because real animals would be too earthly, a fictional creature is invented. Another example of this would be the Gundark that is also mentioned in both OT and PT. It's a genre convention and not a real flaw.

 

Someone in 1977 audience likely would've associated it with the Nerf toys which have been around since 1969. Nobody would have had any idea what a nerf was within the SW universe, and who knows if Lucas did as Lucas he never had a character point and say look at that nerf in Star Wars aka ANH.

 

A film in this format would be awesome.

 

I asked it earlier in the thread but never got an answer, so I ask again, sincerely and not merely to be facetious: where is the evidence that the artistic choices that have been made have had an objectively and provably negative effect on the series as a whole? Where is the proof that with a different art style - perhaps a more realistic one - the viewing figures and critical reception would be appreciably higher? What facts and figures are there that prove Filoni is attempting to provoke some kind of controversy, or deliberately antagonise a certain subset of fandom? Because until there is proof this is simply between people who DO like the art style, and those who do not. Neither is right or wrong but calling for Filoni to be replaced purely because of personal distaste for certain characters' appearance is just not on.

 

As a survey of one, I don't watch the show(s) mainly because of the art style and floaty, cartoony physics that feel completely removed from my perception/interpretation of the Star Wars universe which had been created and presented thus far. Regardless of how "good" I may or may not find the characters, or the plots, or the action; I can't take the show seriously when everyone is flipping around and jumping off of buildings and dodging lasers with fruit and just generally making a farce of it all. There is no sense of urgency or danger when the characters walk away from every encounter with big stupid Disney grins on their faces and not so much as even a bruise. It's overly silly, hardly believable (within the confines of the universe previously established) and just not what I want from Star Wars. Darth Vader's mask contributes to that silliness. I don't feel it further enhances his "evil" but rather talks down to the audience by reminding them at every scene "this guy is evil, just look at his face." It's a caricature.

So good on you all for enjoying it. Other people don't enjoy it, and are able to express a number of reasons why. I don't think it's your place to criticize or malign those who don't enjoy it because you just happened to like something you had no part in creating.