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