Full Series Official Star Wars Rebels Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

I had thought Dave or Pablo stated that Rebels was too different visually for models to be reused. Plus, the markings are a texture, not the model.

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The latest news about Rebels makes me hopeful that we'll see the occasional TCW callback episode, hopefully a Rex episode to catch up with him and an episode in which Vader confronts Ahsoka. Or at the very least, Ahsoka cameos not unlike Chewbacca's single TCW episode. I don't think any of TCW characters, aside from Cad Bane, need to be regulars. But it would be nice to have each of the most popular original characters from TCW making a Rebels appearance. Hondo, Cad Bane, Ventress, Ahsoka, and Rex.

 

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I thought that too but they defiantly reskinned an unused Black Sun ship from Season 5. I found this on the Blu Ray's Temple Archives and to me it looks like it was re-purposed as that TIE Transport that is going to be in Rebels.



this one...



They changed the geometry a bit and added a different wing and engine design but that is totally the same ship. It would be foolish for them to totally start over from scratch and not just re-skin some of their existing assets from The Clone Wars.

 

I have a feeling EU fans have started to come to peace a little bit with the idea that the stories they have been following for the last couple decades or so likely aren't going to be put into the movies.

 

Gimme one good reason why JJ Abrams' vision of the future of SW should be considered more valid than Timothy Zahn's.

I mean, reasons other than "Abrams got a movie contract and Zahn didn't".

The Abrams vision will be almost inevitably more "dumb" and less intellectual.

I wait to see what's gonna come out but I think down the road there could be a fandom schism. Those who kick up and declare the traditional continuity "true Star Wars" and will have none of Disney's offering, and those (likely the majority, certainly all those who never got into the EU and are thus not mentally invested in it) who just go with the flow and accept the new continuity.

Gonna be interesting times indeed.

Course there's always an outside possibility that Abrams pulls a blinder on us, and the events of the Thrawn Trilogy, HoT duology, NJO etc get incorporated into the thing somehow, with it still being an "original story" anyway by following other stuff or something. But it seems unlikely.

 

A Wookiee that can speak basic because he has a speech impediment is pretty dumb. There is some pretty stupid stuff in those Zahn books including most of Luke's new Jedi powers.

 

Uh, no. His speech impediment made it easier for non-Wookiees to understand Shyriiwook.

But I can see that you're an expert on the subject.

 

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That is even stupider. I don't care how bad of an impediment a German has there is no way I am going to understand the guy unless I speak German also. When did Leia pick up Shyriiwook? There was no need for that contrivance in a galaxy that has protocol droids.

 

Yeah, despite the Wookiees' preference for nature over machines, I guess they should have carried both Leia and 3PO's torso around on their backs while climbing the trees of Kashyyyk to keep Leia safe from assassination attempts. And I guess the narrative would flow better with a droid constantly translating for the Wookiees instead of Leia just talking directly to a Wookiee she can understand.

But if you think it's stupid, you think it's stupid.

 

I think it would have been far more interesting if Leia had lost her interpreter and ability to communicate with the Wookiees verbally early on in the plot. I really hated that character as well as the notion that if all Wookiees would just alter their speech patterns people could understand them. Enter the magical talking Wookiee to make up for lazy writing.

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They can't be everywhere but I'd like to think protocol droids are more common than a Wookiee with a hair-lip.

 

I think one also has to ask whether that's really that bad of a thing. I don't think Star Wars has ever been all that intellectual. Trek? OK, that's valid; a long-time Trek fan has a right to complain about that tonal shift (though it *is* a tonal issue which some have misidentified as an increased amount of plotholes; Trek has always had plotholes, but everything was just more elegant and subtle and easier to forgive before the reboot).

I've said before that I simply don't look to Star Wars to feed any deep philosophical needs, so I'm obviously a bad person to talk to about this; I'll watch Truffaut for intimate character development, Bergman for spiritual philosophy, Godard for social philosophy, or Fellini to fit that all into a more nostalgic worldview. I recommend branching out, in fact; I think it makes Star Wars more enjoyable. But to me, looking to Star Wars for that level of intellect might be a "blood from a turnip" situation. Maybe in Zahn's case, you found the one turnip with a circulatory system, but I just don't see how one can use that to set the bar without knowing that you're going to be disappointed.

Thinking on it, I get the feeling there's a major lack of "tonal recognition" in most audiences. They try to put their finger on what's different about something, and instead of getting the big picture and realizing, "This has a different tone, because it's a different decade, with a different director and different music and lighting," they have to nitpick something small. But I think most issues of disappointment come from big, abstract tonal shifts, and maybe lots of people aren't literate in that. That's why I enjoyed the middle of Indiana Jones 4; he and Shia LaBeouf running around finding clues before the big paternal reveal was just classic stuff, and the tone was right. As for the rest of the movie, well, I could nitpick monkeys or waterfalls or soft focus on Karen Allen, but the fact is, the tone was just off. Every other Indy film had gotten super dire by that point in the film, and this one didn't.

 

All I know is if Episode VII wants to overwrite a whopping 84 full-length novels, then it better be perfect. As in, this has to match Empire.

 

Out of those 84, how many won a Hugo or Nebula?

 

Do you expect every tie-in novel to win an award?

I enjoy the storyline and it's characters immensely, and while there are some duds, I feel they're worth getting through. As tie-ins go, which are generally awful, SW is pretty good.

 

I think the point V-2 is making is simply that quantity does not equal quality.

 

I find Zahn unreadable. I don't want VII to be so derivative.

 

I tend to agree, franchise fiction is by and large, cack. But there's my justification for Abrams and others (potentially/hopefully) negating the EU - its cultural significance is very minor and its quality so far below the average of the films.

Nothing in the plot of the new films and TV show(s) should rely on the audience having bought 84 books (plus games and comics and encyclopaedias etc), nor any portion of them. It would be commercial suicide. The visual media acts to encourage fans to buy merchandise, but ownership of the merchandise should never be a prerequisite for understanding the visual media!

No well made film or tv show could hope to incorporate all the EU canon. There's just no good way to include that much exposition...

 

V-2 Well, I'd disagree that the EU is on average worse than the films. It's very subjective. The New Jedi Order took SW and took it on a much more adult direction, while retaining that signature SW feel. Much of my favourite SW moments are contained in those novels.

I also completely agree with you that it shouldn't be necessary to read outside material to watch Episode VII. Thing is, I feel it's very easy to avoid.

Have VII take place in 50-55 ABY, nicely fitting with the older appearances of the original cast members. Being roughly 10 years after the last novel, you can have Jaina and Ben be where the plot of VII demands. There's no need to bring up the other children who have died or turned. I don't really see what big a role Chewbacca would have in the film besides a cameo.

Possibly what would happen would erase the Legacy comics, but that's a small price to pay compared to about half of the material released since '91.

Heck, have the film take place in 70 ABY and feature original characters who are the children of Jaina, and Ben.

 

Just responding to what someone said above, I think one reason EU fans are more at peace is because so much from the EU has made it into the canon universe now. One interview with Filoni that I was reading said that the idea of of Inquisitors came from existing lore.

I think that's cool and I've always liked the idea of Imperial Inquisitors.

 

I don't mind debating with someone who is an EU first type of person. Some people prefer banana, others strawberry. It doesn't matter.

But debating Rebels and Episode VII while pretending it will fit with old continuity ... seems completely useless. I mean it is obviously not going to fit together, so why bother?

I didn't know Zahn was an intellectual. I didn't notice any deeper meanings in his novels that go beyond typical Hollywood morals.