Author Topic: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)  (Read 54245 times)

Offline tmanthegreat

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #90 on: November 12, 2015, 06:30 PM »
I enjoyed seeing the B-Wing prototype in last night's episode.  Fun to see that fighter going through its maneuvers, including the gyro-stabilized cockpit  ;)  Its firepower seemed a bit overrated with that "Death Star" type laser gun - at least compared to what I was used to when "flying" the ship in the X-Wing games...  The episode had some nods to ROTJ and possibly even Top Gun and it was nice to see focus on some of the other characters in the gang besides Kanan and Ezra. 

But, now I have questions...  In ANH, the Rebel Alliance is clearly equipped mostly with X-Wings and Y-Wings.  No B-Wings and no A-Wings, if anything because they hadn't been created yet.  I know that later mediums and source materials retconned at least the A-Wing into the Alliance inventory prior to the Battle of Yavin in the form of the R-22 Spearhead.  That at least makes sense for the fighter used by the Rebel fleet in the "Rebels" cartoon.  That said, I'm actually surprised we haven't seen Y-Wings yet, or even Z-95s.  We know they've been around since the Clone Wars and were depicted frequently in that cartoon.  Would make sense they would be around in number and in use by the Rebels or other groups after being ditched by the Empire, but not a sight of them yet...

However, back on the B-Wing, I thought that ship came about via Admiral Ackbar and the Sullustans post Battle of Yavin, not some random engineer on some backwater planet years before the events of the ANH film.  Guess those elements got trashed with the Disney takeover, are now legends, and Dave Filoni and crew are creating the new timeline ::)     
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #91 on: November 12, 2015, 07:15 PM »
Rebels was taking some of the EU and mixing it with their own story.  It was always noted that the B-Wing comes about because of "project shantipole" and that Ackbar at least had a hand in its design.

Given last night's details, that's still at least something that would fit...  The ship's prototype is all we see, the super gun thing doesn't quite work and fries the hyperdrive (if not other things), the final ship doesn't have a twin-cockpit design which the proto did (I actually had designed my own lil ship once and it was like a B-Wing without S foils and cockpits on either side...  Go figure).

And a Mon Cal heading the design process makes me think he's either still involved or passes the project onto Ackbar.  Perhaps he croaks?  Perhaps he'll croak in an episode of Rebels even?

Either way I felt like last night's ep went out of its way to keep the B-Wing EU alive.  I appreciated that.  Technically it isn't in Rebel hands till near the battle of Hoth, as the EU goes, so there's that.

The A-Wing, they've made sure and use the McQuarrie design of the ship which has some significant differences.  That fits with the EU, which in its last stages (for that ship anyway) had it as a predecessor of the final A-Wing we see in ROTJ.  X-Wing noted them as flying distant cover for the battle of Yavin, which folks choose to take or leave, and then the ICS has the Spearhead at the Massassi Temple in limited #'s at least, so there's all that. 

IIRC EU never was clear on the A-Wing much, and the only things I recall (prior to the ICS notes on the "Spearhead) were it being a sort of "answer" to the TIE Interceptor, but then again X-Wing also says the TIE Interceptor was available to the Empire long before the Battle of Yavin (as do other games and some other EU material if I'm not mistaken), and that Vader's TIE was one of many, though his may have been the only one fitted with a hyperdrive.  It's another grey area.  I know in XW, the TIE Advanced ships that do engage the Rebels are more like the vintage TIE, in that they're just a ball cockpit, not the elongated hull...  Some of it's probably just game design stuff but one could argue it's a less advanced TIE Advanced variant than Vader's which may have been sort of a custom ship for him.  *shrugs*  Lots of places to BS whatever there.

So right now it seems like Fillonni may be one of the only dudes looking at past EU, and trying to jam it into the Rebel story line.  I'd rather he didn't use the A-Wing and instead used older fighters, or a mix, or whatever, but who knows who these ones are.  Perhaps they're the group who designed the ship, thus they have it in some quantity?  So far A-Wings are like Red Shirts in Star Trek though.  :-X

I will say I like when they make up some of their new designs.  The idea of light capital ships carrying piggyback fighters like that is pretty  nifty IMO, and so I dig the Corvettes utilizing the A-Wings that way and the Imperial ships (still not seen a designation on that though) with the single flight of TIEs on its belly. 

I didn't care for the B-Wing "super gun".  It opens up too many questions like, if a B-Wing can do this, why don't larger ships like Corvettes, which in theory should have greater power output, mount weapons like this into their design and just one-shot other, similarly classed vessels like that?

Also, if a BW can just be ferried into combat via a hyperdrive capable ship, why not do that and retain the insane firepower?

This is all where adult dissection of the shows has to give way to the wow factor of it being a kid's show, to a degree, IMO.   :-\  Kids like the big gun that blows up a whole Imperial ship, so they go that route.  Explaining it away logically becomes a challenge and something ultimately I'd probably just ignore.  Also along the lines of, "why aren't the Rebel ships shooting back" when they're attempting to run the blockade? 

Also why would one pod of food save these people?  Won't they just be starving again when that runs out?  Or is the Empire just gonna give up on the blockade concept?  And if this is an important thing, why send such unimportant (IE: not destroyers) vessels to perform the task?  Lots of stuff to just basically forget about. :-X

I really want a "Spearhead" A-Wing, in the McQuarrie blue colors with the proper guns...  Would love to have that in the collection. :)
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #92 on: November 12, 2015, 10:07 PM »
The nods to concept material seem to be quite abundant in this new Disney era of Star Wars.  J.J. Abrams seems to be leaning heavily on some McQuarrie designs for THE FORCE AWAKENS.  The AT-AT's that were in "The Lost Commanders" drew upon some of the concept artwork for the AT-AT's.  Hell, the name of the Mon Cal starship builder was QUARRIE!!!

As for the B-Wing?  I was glad to see some of it's origins explored here.  Quarrie referred to it as the "Blade Wing", which is where that B comes from.  And the concept behind the B-Wing in ROTJ was that a flight of B-Wing fighters could take on a Star Destroyer and disable it with their heavy blasters, ion cannons and proton torpedoes.  There's an illustration that I've always really liked that I believe dates back to around ROTJ, and it shows B-Wings taking out an Imperial Star Destroyer.



As for the super-laser concept?  It's cool to see something like that incorporated, but noting that there are complications with how it will disable the ship's hyperdrive.  From a story standpoint it shows that the ship is a work in progress as it makes its way from prototype to production.  As for the gunner's pod?  That's something that actually dates back to Joe Johnston's conceptual design of the B-Wing, but it looks like for the purposes of this episode the concept for the gunners pod got added onto what looks very much like the ship from ROTJ.  The Action Fleet Series Alpha line actually offered up what that concept B-Wing would look like:



As for the status of B-Wings in the Rebel fleet?  I think that's something that the Star Wars story group is taking on.  I think they're trying to respect some of the previously established EU, but they're reworking things a bit for the purposes of the show.  In the new Rebels Recon Dave Filoni said that he wanted to showcase the A-Wing and B-Wing more since he felt they didn't get showcased so much in the OT.  And he as well as Pablo Hidalgo put forth that perhaps the X-Wings and Y-Wings were utilized by other Rebel units.  Given what we see of the Rebel fleet in ANH, and then in TESB, and finally in ROTJ you get the sense that there are Rebel units from all over the galaxy.  That methodology seems to play out somewhat logically.
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Offline Scockery

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #93 on: November 17, 2015, 11:27 PM »
Yeah, some obligatory it's a cartoon/small galaxy moments.

Agent Kallus has nothing better to do that run a small blockade? Isn't that job for a fleet officer? See, that was a spot to use another OT Imperial Officer.

Not annoyed by no mention of Ackbar, because that story stank of EU's own "it's a small galaxy" moment.

Quarrie doesn't fly, how'd he get to that planet?  ???
Or did he mean, doesn't fly fly, like a test pilot/fighter pilot?

Hondo vs. Vizago...Hondo has personality, Vizago not so much...he hasn't been characterized beyond "black market guy".
« Last Edit: November 17, 2015, 11:29 PM by Scockery »

Offline Nicklab

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #94 on: November 18, 2015, 08:11 AM »
I appreciate the previously established EU backstory on Ackbar and the development of the B-Wing.  When that source material came out it was an interesting way to flesh out a character who was a great part of ROTJ.

But then there's Ackbar's appearance in CLONE WARS.  He wasn't mentioned by name in the Tartakovsky cartoons, but the Mon Cal's did play a part there.  And when the Filoni incarnation of CLONE WARS went to Dac, we got to meet Captain Ackbar.

Now, if REBELS had tried to shoehorn Ackbar into this story arc?  I think in that case it might have had the effect of turning Ackbar into the SW galaxy's version of Forest Gump.  And the audience could be left wondering where will Ackbar turn up next, like it's some sort of joke.  And considering how the story developed between Hera and Quarrie?  I couldn't see that sort of dialogue working with Ackbar's character.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2015, 08:12 AM by Nicklab »
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Offline Scockery

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #95 on: November 20, 2015, 11:22 PM »
Blood Sisters gave us a some small revelations about Sabine's past.

Not bad, kinda "meh".  Chopper's being owning it lately. Also, a GONK droid.

Offline Nicklab

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #96 on: November 26, 2015, 08:36 AM »
Excellent episode last night!  I think it completely captured a lot of the aesthetic of A NEW HOPE in terms of the design of the Interdictor Star Destroyer.  The reactor space was incredibly reminiscent of the Death Star tractor beam control area.  And the Admiral?  He looked almost exactly like Lt Shann Childsen, the Death Star detention block officer. 

Good stuff all the way around.  I hope that the tone that's been set by episodes like this one continue through the series. 

I did catch a little hint from Pablo Hidalgo on Twitter.  Notably, that the Interdictor Star Destroyer in this episode will likely be the last big nod to the EU derived from the West End Games source material. 
« Last Edit: November 26, 2015, 09:51 AM by Nicklab »
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Offline Scockery

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #97 on: November 26, 2015, 07:48 PM »
Admiral was rocking those 70's sideburns.  8)

Kind of a small crew for Sato's ship...3 guys and Ezra?

Imperial Engineers (?) with the gunner helmet...another EU thing.
Rex not being able to see a thing in the stormtrooper helmet, yet he wore clone trooper helmets.  :P

Chopper still kicking butt...killing hundreds.  :D

Offline Scockery

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #98 on: December 4, 2015, 12:24 AM »
The Future of the Force.

"A sith lord tried to do the same thing during the clone wars, but we stopped him."

Yeah, he's also had 15 years to do the same thing with probably no one to stop him. That's a lot of dead babies or something.

Good Guys Are Dumb moments: Two times I said "you shoulda killed that inquisitor". Once Fifth brother was knocked out and on the ground and Kanan could've decaptitate him. Ahsoka had 7th Sister at her mercy.  Yeah, yeah, Jedi don't murder...it's a kid's show...whatever.

Bad guys are needlessly evil moment: Implied slicing up the ship's passengers. What did that accomplish? No witnesses...who cares, the Empire runs the show!

Bad guys are dumb moment: Leaving the derelict transport in space with life support and the old woman (very youthful looking thanks to CGI) alive.  So again, what was the point of 5th Brotha killing those people.

Offline Dave

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #99 on: December 5, 2015, 08:54 AM »
Good to see Ahsoka mixing it up a little bit, and kicking some butt.

Offline Scockery

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #100 on: December 11, 2015, 01:04 AM »
LEGACY

Is Clancy Brown required to do a voice in every cartoon series now?

Kallus, when kid starts kicking your ass, you're out of your league.

Offline Matt_Fury

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #101 on: December 11, 2015, 01:16 AM »
Decent episode.  They did leave it slightly open to revisit Ezra's parents in the future if they wanted to.
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Offline 77Skywalker

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #102 on: January 7, 2016, 07:11 PM »
When I heard they actually were casting Sarah Michelle Gellar as one of the inquisitors for season 2, I thought it was interesting here because she is married to Freddie Prinze Jr, who does the voice of Kanan.

Offline Jeff

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #103 on: January 11, 2016, 01:20 PM »
[Original Trilogy Character] Set to Appear on Rebels on 1/20

I know this is a spoiler thread, but I protected it in case there are some folks out there looking to be surprised... ;)

« Last Edit: January 11, 2016, 01:20 PM by Jeff »
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Offline Dave

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Re: Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)
« Reply #104 on: January 11, 2016, 01:23 PM »
[Original Trilogy Character] Set to Appear on Rebels on 1/20

I know this is a spoiler thread, but I protected it in case there are some folks out there looking to be surprised... ;)

Didn't click through on the link, but is this supposed to be the next new episode?  The kids keep bugging me for when the next new episode will air and I haven't been able to find any info on that.