Star Wars Rebels - Season One (Spoilers)

[Jeff]

Call me a canonist or a purist or close minded or whatever it was a dumb idea to begin with.

Cannonist! 

I like the idea of Vader being the one to take out Ahsoka...  but there's probably too much money in Ahsoka staying alive for her to be taken out like that. 

If we're guessing her fate, I'll guess she was on Alderaan with Bail when it exploded...  that's the real reason that Obi-Wan was able to feel it's destruction from so far away.

[P-Siddy]

Season One is wrapping up soon...  about 40 mins or so?  I'm kind of surprised how little chatter is going on among the collecting world.  There are either a lot less folks around than in 2008, or it's just not caught on quite the same TCW did. 

I guess all the complaining is happening post-episode about spoilers and what-not.  Are people really that self-centered and spoiled themselves?  Have they not learned to stay off social media if you haven't watched an episode yet and expect no one to talk about it.  I wonder how adults handled it back during the water-cooler chat days?

[Jesse James]

Yeah I tended to avoid my twitter feed because I knew Jayson at Yakface someone would inevitably say stuff I didn't want to read.   (j/k Jayson, you only got me once this season!)

I DVR it and watch it at my gf's generally because Mondays are bad for me to focus on a TV show and I want to watch it on my big screen there anyway.  I caved and watched the finale though because I wanted to join in the conversation afterwards, haha.  It's fun too.  I haven't felt like talking Star Wars this much in a while.

[Matt_Fury]

Call me a canonist or a purist or close minded or whatever it was a dumb idea to begin with.

Cannonist! 

I like the idea of Vader being the one to take out Ahsoka...  but there's probably too much money in Ahsoka staying alive for her to be taken out like that. 

If we're guessing her fate, I'll guess she was on Alderaan with Bail when it exploded...  that's the real reason that Obi-Wan was able to feel it's destruction from so far away.

Although the Ahsoka dying on Alderaan is a good one, I doubt that's the reason Obi-Wan could feel it.  Millions of voices crying out in terror and being suddenly silenced would create a great disturbance in the Force.

[Dave]

Bah!  I knew I should have watched the episode live last night.

I did a good job of avoiding the Star Wars sites today, but then got an e-mail from Her Universe with the subject of "AHSOKA LIVES!"

I'm going to have to go full Amish next time.

[Scott]

I remember reading somewhere that one of Lucas's ideas for the ST was to have someone who was hidden or survived the PT come through to the ST and have a large part in plot moving forward.  Speculation back in the PT days was that person was going to be Padme...I would put good money on that person is going to be Ahsoka.  She is going to survive all of this middle part of the story and come through to the ST and will play a big part.  We really don't know what some of the actresses who have been cast for EpVII are playing.   

I also really can't put a finger on why she bothers me so much.  I guess in my mind it was always just Obi-Wan and Anakin and she seems like a complete marketing ploy.  I guess, why do I care?  People seem happy about it and I'm happy for them.  Now if only Willrow Hood could come back

[Nicklab]

I was finally able to watch the episode yesterday.  As stories go, that final 3 episode arc was strong.  Even though the Inquisitor and Agent Kallus are not to be trifled with, the introduction of Tarkin to the series brought something far more sinister to the Empire.  The Imperial Forces seemed to be that much more of a threat with Tarkin's presence.  And even the Inquisitor was that much more brutal as well.

It seems like this crisis served to do more for Kanan in terms of deepening his connection with the Force.  And he's becoming a far better teacher to Ezra in the process.  And his lightsaber duel with the Inquisitor?  The setting absolutely brought you back to the Theed duel from EPISODE I.  But there the similarities ended.  Ezra is more youngling than a proper Padawan, and I think he was very much out of his depth and couldn't match up with the Inquisitor.  But Kanan did some things in that duel that were very much remarkable.  When Ezra fell I almost thought that Kanan was going to tap into the Dark Side.  But seeing him use that to center himself in the Force also seemed to help him get past the demons he had associated with the loss of his master, Depa Billaba.  And his use of Ezra's lightsaber / blaster in the duel was actually really clever.

I think the Inquisitor HAD to die.  And I think he's going to stay dead.  He seemed resigned to his death with his final words.  And I suspect that was directly related to his own fear of both Darth Vader and the Emporer.  Plus, I don't know how long a series like REBELS could hang onto an actor like Jason Isaacs.  Hell, I'm still surprised that they've got David Oyelowo for the part of Agent Kallus.  As for the return of Vader?  His appearance was a nice bookend to the series.  The series launch had that special scene with Vader communicating with the Inquisitor, and to cap things off with the arrival of Vader brings things to a place that we're all familiar with.

The revelation of Ahsoka as Fulcrum was kind of expected.  The leaks have been hinting at that for a few weeks now.  From a story standpoint I think it makes sense.  When we last saw Ahsoka in CLONE WARS we saw her as disaffected with both the Jedi and the Republic.  So I can understand her taking part in the Rebellion.  It makes sense for her as a character.  Part of me is wondering if the show might explore any sort of long standing connection between Ahsoka and Hera or her family.  It certainly makes me want to re-watch the CLONE WARS Ryloth story arc to see if there was any interaction between Ahsoka and Hera's father, Cham Syndulla.  I was also glad to see Bail Organa in the mix again along with those Blockade Runners.  One curious point?  The troopers who were awaiting the crew of the Ghost after they docked with the captured Imperial ship.  They were actually reminiscent of some Rebel troopers that were in THE FORCE UNLEASHED as part of Rahm Kota's militia.

Going forward?  I think we're going to see the crew of the Ghost much more involved in coordinated Rebel Alliance operations.  They're probably still going to be involved in some similar ops on Lothal that we saw in Season 1, but those will likely tie-in with broader Alliance missions and other Rebel cells.  I hope we get to see some more of Ahsoka and Bail Organa as the second season develops.  Will we see Leia?  That seems questionable since Leia was relatively young in ANH.

As for the Empire?  Bringing Vader into the mix will step things up with the Empire on Lothal.  I don't know how much Vader will be directly involved.  You would think that as soon as Vader becomes aware of any surviving Jedi that he would personally hunt them down.  Could Vader's arrival on Lothal be the catalyst for the crew of the Ghost to become more mobile in their operations?  I think that's a real possibility.  Especially if Kanan has heard about Vader in the years following Order 66. 

One thing that's been a point of contention for me is about how Imperial Inquisitors are Force users.  Dave Filoni has talked about this a little bit.  And he's specifically said that they are not Sith.  I know that the Inquisitors had a role in what is now "Legends" EU, but the only place I recall them popping up was in the Dark Empire storyline.  So, can we expect a new Inquisitor to come into the mix following the death of the Pau'an Inquisitor?  I'm interested to see what another different  Inquisitor might bring to the table for the second season.

Other series notes?  I like that we've seen something of a blend between PT era tech and OT tech in the REBELS series.  The AT-DP seems like a clear blend between the PT AT-RT and the OT's AT-ST.  And there was also the Gunships that we saw in the episode where Kanan was captured.  Those were the same class of Gunships that Anakin used on Coruscant as he and the Shock Troopers were trying to track down Ahsoka towards the end of the CLONE WARS series.  Things like that do help to establish some continuity that grounds things.

[jedipurge]

i'd like to see General Dodanna, Madine, Rieken in the mix. Maybe not as generals, but it'd be nice to see that they deserve the rank and maybe a lil bit how they got there. We saw Akbar in CW so i'm ok without seeing him again. i swear Sarah Gellar is going to be new inquisitor as mara jade 2.0

[JediJman]

Happy to see Ahsoka back in the mix for the cartoon, but will be less pleased if she shows up in the movieverse.  I'm still unsure of what Non-Movie material is considered cannon since Disney took over, but it looks like Clone Wars is part of the official timeline now.  Personally, I really like both cartoons.  I know they're not perfect and often watered down, but they are on par or better than most of what we see in the action cartoon world.  Certainly better than the old Droids or Ewoks runs, or the mutlitude of different Transformers cartoons those fans have to deal with. 

[Jesse James]

I'd dig seeing some Rebels we know, but not all...  Not sure on Madine since I kinda like his backstory as it is...  Would almost rather see Dodonna and the Yavin guys since a lot of their story is kind of vague.  Capt. Antilles would be neat, especially since the ROTS and ANH Antilles are very different dudes, so I'd kinda dig seeing them explain that.  Some of the pilots would be cool to see too.

[Brian]

I haven't really had the chance to come in here during the season to comment, but I've really been enjoying watching Rebels with our daughter.  It may just be the time period that I prefer, but it has been fun seeing these adventures unfold.  Not a perfect show by any means, but I think it really improved as the season went on and was pretty great by the end.

Like many of you, we sort of predicted the Fulcrum reveal, but it didn't make it any less cool.  The fact that they opened up the show to other Rebel factions was neat too, and makes me think we could see more of those OT rebels show up as mentioned already.  I know I'm really anxious for Season 2 already, but I'm guessing we have a little bit of a break.  I've grown to really like the crew of the Ghost as well, which is an accomplishment with a slate of all new characters.  At least CW had familiar faces to lean on, although things really grew from there.  Really good finale though, sort of hoping we see more CW characters pop up eventually (Cad Bane, Hondo, Ventress, etc.?)

[Qui-Gon Jim]

Here's what's been on my mind...

We know that Yoda and Obi-Wan and obviously Palpatine know that Vader is Anakin...  Is this common knowledge?  Does Ashoka know?  That could be a cool reveal. 

[Matt_Fury]

There are more people who know.  Bail Organa has to know...hell Uncle Owen knows!  I'm sure R2-D2 knows but won't tell and C-3PO used to know.

I'm willing to bet that Organa didn't tell too many people, but did tell Ahsoka.

[Jesse James]

Yeah I think there are maybe several people who know...  Tarkin appears quite familiar with Vader as well, and they spent time together in The Clone Wars, and seem almost friendly by the time of ANH.  It's a weird dynamic in ANH where Tarkin almost seems to hold rank over Vader in some capacity, and some officers seem to feel they're on his level or above him (Motti).  Then by ESB, people are just generally afraid of him, haha.

Tarkin also discusses Kenobi with Vader seemingly being well aware of the entire story there, aside from him having kids of course.

In a recent video the Jedi and people's general unfamiliarity with them is explained away as the lack of numbers for them, so most people never met one.  Tarkin emphasizes that in the last story arc of Rebs saying he knew the Jedi, not from stories, but in person.  He was there to see them die too, so he knows they're not all-powerful and omnipotent like lil Annie felt they were even in TPM.

I figure not many knew, but some important people still left in the galaxy did, ultimately.  I wonder if his identity never really mattered too...  Like, why hide who he was?  What's it matter?  It's good for the story, of course, but was there any logical reason to keep who he was from the public anyway?  Even if you propaganda spin the Jedi as trying to overthrow the Republic and stuff, you can always play up Ani/Vader as a hero in stopping it from happening.  The Jedi instill anything from fear, to respect, to people being star-struck, to people thinking they're full of **** scammers.  It'd be easy to manipulate that against them, and not need to hide who Vader is for any real reason at all.

[GrandMoffNick]

In the book "Tarkin", which was released post Disney taking over, so I don't know exactly what that means for canon, Legends, etc.  Tarkin is pretty sure Vader is/was Anakin.