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

You want the show to be more like the ST than the OT even though it takes place just fifteen to twenty years before the OT and probably a good fifty or sixty years prior to the ST.

 

Every time I see someone type "ST" I instantly think "Suicidal Tenancies" which ironically is what I had after seeing the PT.

 

So, I missed the initial discussion of the new series so I'll just say that I'm really excited! The idea of Ralph McQuarrie designs in the animation really intrigues me. I'm especially hoping that Darth Vader's suit will be reminiscent of his ANH novel cover appearance. Also, I will be a really happy camper if a certain red-headed Emperor's Hand makes an appearance or two...

 

I liked The Clone Wars a LOT. What I didn't like was how they treated the EU like a romper room when it came to continuity. Fortunately Rebels is in a relatively unexplored time period.

I have high hopes for it!

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When I refer to Rebels matching ST like TCW matches PT I'm saying if the show in question is much better than the film trilogy in question.

Good band.

 

^
Great band.

 

OK, i'm moving this from TCW thread because i think it belongs here... Filoni's original concept for TCW that Lucas nixed. This certainly could be part of the basic concept for Rebels now that Filoni has a chance to operate on his own. This is from "The Art of The Clone Wars" coffee table book that came out in '09:

"My rough idea was to deal with a small number of characters, have them based on a Millennium Falcon-style smuggling ship, and involve them in black market trade, war espionage, and other stories that existed outside the giant galactic conflict going on in the background."

The part about the ship certainly reminds me of the Ghost. And they certainly could transport the overall story concept to the era after Episode 3.

 

So Filoni's initial idea for TCW was to not even have Anakin or Obi Wan in the show much at all? The only thing in my mind that would make me think the new show won't be centered around a bunch of smugglers who operate outside of the main storylines from this timeline is that the show has already been confirmed to be called 'Rebels'. Be a little difficult to legitimize the 'Rebels' title if it is mainly about people who don't have much to do with the war.

 

Yeah, Filoni says in this book that he wanted to stay away from the main Clone Wars storyline since it had been covered in the books/comics/Gendy series, so he and Gilroy outlined a story going on in the sidelines and presented it to George. Lucas quickly rejected it since he had some stories already lined up for the main prequel characters and storyline that he didn't get to explore in the movies. The one concession was George reworked Dave's padawan Togruta "Ashla" who in the original concept was assigned to that smuggling ship with her Twi'lek master in order to monitor and police the black market. Obviously that became Ahsoka, but he surprised Dave again by insisting she was Anakin's apprentice.

For the new show, you could say that they went with a more general term "Rebels" since the resistance to the Empire is still scattered and not in the structured "Rebel Alliance." Those rebelling against the status quo are often considered fringe elements like pirates or "terrorists." They explored this in the Onderon arc in TCW. A Rebel could be a smuggler, a political dissident, a freedom fighter, etc. The synopsis above describes the ship as smuggling style, but I guess it could be used for something other than smuggling. And perhaps there were other smugglers other than Han Solo who had anti-Imperial leanings. I'm reminded of Sugi from TCW who was a Bounty Hunter that would use most of her energy helping those disenfranchised souls in the galaxy, i.e. the farmers on Felucia and the lost padawans and Chewie on Wasskah. Sugi was clearly a "Rebel."

 

Facepalm. That's what I wanted from a new Clone Wars series.....

 

We will have to see. I find it highly unlikely though that they would avoid this timeframe of the war when there is no reason to and there is a ton of new stories they could add to the war. I also find it unlikely that disney would want them to create a show that dealt very little with the actual rebellion of this era (unless they planned on telling that story in movie format)

 

Did he play KotOR the night before he pitched that to G. Walt?

THIS, was the first thing that came to mind.​

 

Those quotes are interesting because they show (according to Dave after the fact, anyway) how different his intentions for the show were versus what it ended up being. But for better or worse, this isn't the first time we've seen him say things that essentially equate to, "hey, don't blame me, George made me trample over existing canon."

I still don't really know how much of the blame Filoni deserves for the issues TCW had, or conversely how much of the credit for the great stuff about it. But it should be interesting to see how it works on Rebels without George looking over their shoulders all the time. And I'm glad there are others working with Filoni who should hopefully keep his ideas in check and make it more collaborative.

 

The book came out in '09 so not really new info, but I guess they haven't delved in to these discussions elsewhere.

 

Right, thanks... when I said "after the fact" I didn't mean after the show had ended or anything like that. Thanks for the quotes.

 

Dave's idea of a group of smugglers all living together on a small ship in a galaxy controlled by an imposing empire sounds an awful lot like Firefly IMHO. The crew of The Ghost unwittingly takes on a Jedi passenger that is high up on the Empire's most wanted list (Ahsoka Tano) and they are relentlessly tracked across the galaxy from episode to episode.

I'd personally LOVE that.

 

Here's a shot of that original group that Dave came up with, he showed this at the CEII panel in Germany:


To bring it full circle... Ahsoka as an ex-Jedi may be a part of this crew of "Rebels" on the smuggling ship... just like she was originally intended to be on TCW as the character Ashla.

But is that Ghost ship big enough for a big crew?

 

It wouldn't have made much sense to have Jedi hanging out with smugglers during The Clone Wars. Maybe they were against the war or something.

I think The Ghost looks like it has plenty of room to house a 5 or 6 person crew.

 

Apparently the concept was that the Jedi found a smuggler they could team up with as a cover for keeping an eye on and policing the activities in the black market.

 

A Gungan, a Han Solo rip off character, and a character with buns on her head? Maybe it is a good thing George said no. In anycase we're getting ahead of ourselves again by saying he is going to use this same exact idea based solely on the fact that there is going to be Falcon like ship in Rebels as well.

 

Your mileage may vary. Really just speculation now as you mentioned.

Oh, and those don't look like buns [insert Sir Mix-a-Lot reference] i was getting more of a Lumiya vibe:

 

Yeah, those ideas do sound a lot like Firefly / Serenity.

 

But you need a Jedi type character to fill the wanted / hunted "River" role and to give the ship a reason to be singled out and chased by the Empire.

 

Well, technically, any Jedi-type character can fit this role. It need not be Ahsoka, it can even be an original character who's the fugitive. It's an interesting concept, regardless, and I like the idea of one of the Ghost crew being a Jedi fugitive, trying to blend in with the common people, but ultimately they end up being on the run from the Empire for harboring a Jedi.