Star Wars Rebels - Season 2 (Spoilers)

[Matt_Fury]

That ship design is something we saw WAY, WAY back in KOTOR.  It's interesting to see it get recycled for the show.

They were also flying in the background of ROTS during one of the Jedi Council scenes.

[Jayson]

Protector of Concord Dawn preview looks dope.

[Dave]

Here's a new preview for the Rebels season 2 midseason premiere: A Princess on Lothal

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/star-wars-rebels-leia-arrives-220534651.html

We get to see a young Princess Leia

My kids loved loved loved that episode.  I think they've watched it four times since it came out last week.

[Nicklab]

Cool episode last night.  I like the way that the animated series have been expanding on the history of the Mandalorians.  And seeing them in the mix here was very cool.  But for the whole episode I was kind of wracking my brain, trying to figure out who was voicing Fenn Rau, the Protector of Concord Dawn.  And the credits are out for the episode, and the IMDB PAGE lists actor Kevin McKidd (Trainspotting, Rome, Grey's Anatomy) playing Fenn Rau.  It's nice to see some real actors taking some guest parts.

[Matt_Fury]

I've been impressed with both of the new episodes.  I also wouldn't mind getting one of those mandalorian fighters!

[Jesse James]

I'm on the other end then because I didn't care for last week's, and last night's was more filler aside from the possibility of the Mandalorians joining the Alliance that was semi-hinted at.

Last week's, the Leia episode, was dismal to me though...  My first bitch was, "So you just happen to have car boots for this type of ship, on Lothal?", and my second bitch was, "And on top of it, you just happen to have a prison that BUILDS these boots, for these ships, on this planet, and the Rebels just happen to have a guy who was in there and knows all about getting them off locked-down ships?"

Leia was cool, but clearly a fan wank and nothing more...  The only story-ish thing they attempted and failed was Ezra reflecting on his dead parents a little bit.  About as briefly as Luke thought about Biggs, Owen, and Beru anyway.

Clone Wars had its flaws, but was far better written, and even jumping all over the place it seemed to have more of a cohesive vibe to it.  This show's just much slower feeling, less interesting.

I really liked the episode with the Inquisitors stealing babies, which was like the episode in TCW where the Seps were doing the same thing, but Rebels feels like it can't find a steady footing for some reason.  I also think the animation in TCW was vastly superior.  The backgrounds though, in Rebels, are amazing.  Last night's was easily the best.  That destroyed planet was awesome as a space backdrop.  I want it for a desktop on my laptop now!

Anyway, last night was better than last week...  Had its flaws too, but I liked that they put in the Mandalorian training of the Clones, and that some sentients were involved in battles...  I always envisioned the Republic having a standing army, just a small one, and the Clones made up the difference...  So I always had this idea that, as the cut dialogue implied, guys like Red Leader (perhaps) were around and fighting in Republic non-clone squads and things.  I liked that about last night.  And the fighters...  My god, Hasbro is leaving $ on the table with that McQuarrie A-Wing and Mando fighter.  I'd love both, neither are "big", both doable in Class II...  I'd be giddy to get either ship really.

But, again, the story just felt off and rushed (Why didn't TCW feel rushed like this does?  I dunno.), and so I'm easily distracted from it.

I'm inspired though, weekly, to make random crap like boxes, or that Hangar Sled with the ladder on it for TIE Fighters.  That stuff's sooo cool and obscure to me.   And a hover pallet jack too.  Just good cool diorama junk.

[Jeff]

My god, Hasbro is leaving $ on the table with that McQuarrie A-Wing and Mando fighter.  I'd love both, neither are "big", both doable in Class II...  I'd be giddy to get either ship really.

Until you open it and realize you paid $30 for a 5POA pack-in figure and an under-scaled ship made with low quality plastic and a severe lack of paint, stickers, and weathering....  #sadtrombone

At least I know a place where you can go to complain about it....  once you're done complaining about how hard it was to find and the fact that the pack-in figure is not female, of course. 

[Jesse James]

LoLz 

Hey I'm dreaming big here! 

I actually appreciated the Class II offerings for TFA, so I'm banking on offerings that nice on these...  Then again maybe not. 

I'll take the 5POA pilots though.  They're animated anyway so they're already customs fodder for me.

Man they should make a set of all those cargo boxes, the cargo sleds, and hallways...  lotta hallways. 

[Nicklab]

My god, Hasbro is leaving $ on the table with that McQuarrie A-Wing and Mando fighter.  I'd love both, neither are "big", both doable in Class II...  I'd be giddy to get either ship really.

Until you open it and realize you paid $30 for a 5POA pack-in figure and an under-scaled ship made with low quality plastic and a severe lack of paint, stickers, and weathering....  #sadtrombone

At least I know a place where you can go to complain about it....  once you're done complaining about how hard it was to find and the fact that the pack-in figure is not female, of course. 

Need to add a LIKE button to the forum, Jeff!

[Dave]

Heck, I'll take any new ship at this point.  Even if it is scaled down and slightly overpriced. 

I agree that Rebels feels shallower than Clone Wars.  It would be nice if Rebels seemed to have a mission, like it was going someplace, with larger story arcs.  A lot of these episodes seem to be disconnected from one another.  I couldn't tell you what The Ghost rebel team is even trying to accomplish other than "be rebels".

However, I do love that this is more kid oriented as my 6-8 year olds love it.  Clone Wars was way too dark for them to watch, so I'm glad we can have some weekly shared experiences with Star Wars.

[Scott]

One thing I cannot believe has not happened yet is the bridge of one of these characters into the new movie universe.  I am still shocked that on of the of the characters in Rogue One is not one of the Rebels.  How much more dramatic would that movie be if the end is a final duel between Vader and Ahsoka with the Rebels escaping in the background with the Death Star Plans.

[Dave]

One thing I cannot believe has not happened yet is the bridge of one of these characters into the new movie universe.  I am still shocked that on of the of the characters in Rogue One is not one of the Rebels.  How much more dramatic would that movie be if the end is a final duel between Vader and Ahsoka with the Rebels escaping in the background with the Death Star Plans.

Yeah, or Kanan or Ezra. 

Maybe its going to happen and they've just kept it under wraps.

I wonder if they'll ever have finality on any of the Rebels characters, or just let them fade away with no clarity as to why they weren't part of the OT rebels.

[Dave]

Kind of a weird (and not great) episode this week. 

In the past few months they've been dealing with episodes more focused on people other than Ezra/Kanan, and this week's was Zeb's turn.  I thought we were going to get some good character development, etc. on Zeb's history, motivations, etc. 

Things seemed to be going okay (I usually like the Hondo episodes of CW and Rebels), but then things go weirdly mystical, and then the episode just ended with them finding the long lost home of the Lasats without us even really seeing what went down.  It seems like this could have easily have been a couple of episode story arc where the rebels manage to get some allies against the empire, Zeb's character gets more development, etc. 

Just weird how abruptly everything just came to a conclusion.

[Jesse James]

I couldn't stand last week's episode much...  didn't even pay it much attention while it was on, actually.  This show loses me at times, and at other times it holds my attention, but I have to say it's lost me more than kept me this season. 

Tonight's (Ryloth stuff) episode was different though...  Better than a lot of this season for sure.  It actually involved some Rebellion type stuff, and some warring in the stars type stuff. 

I liked the Imperial Carrier...  The concept already existed, but this was an interesting different design to Escort Carriers, which IIRC aren't hyper-capable.  It's interesting too that the Alliance wants one.  Makes sense.  They also carried over the notion that Twi'Leks are enslaved by the Empire, for whatever reason, and so I've enjoyed them keeping that narrative going beyond Wookiees.  That some species just are getting the shaft, for whatever reason it may be.

The first sighting of TIE's in racks was nice too.

I'm curious how they'll be going forward from here...  When they're doing actual Rebellion-type stuff, it's a little more interesting.  I can't say the characters have evolved to where I care about them much though.  Except Chopper.  I love Chopper, and his design.

There's a lot of better stuff this episode though.  It's definitely cooler than the last one.  Much more fun and interesting.  And seeing Syndulla's crew using CW era hardware still interests me a lot.  Could this be a good way for the Alliance to get some Y-Wings in their arsenal finally?

As the show progresses though, I hope they pay attention to the EU narrative on some things...  I'd hate to see them show the X-Wing's arrival without giving nods to the previously established EU.  The show seems to integrate things well enough in that regard, but that's the kind of thing I could see them rewriting, and not doing a good job of it.

Time to get some Z-95's and Y-Wings in there though.   Let's get moving on that, hah.

[Scockery]

Save the space whales, murder the hard working gas miners...even Ezra gets kill happy, sending a Rodian pilot to his icy space tomb. They weren't imperials, more like independent contractors. But hey, they were also ugly aliens who flew TIE fighters...ugly yellow tie fighters...and had the nerve to attack a ship whose gun turret was aiming at them.  Same ship was heading to their facility to steal from them.

Homecoming was better, even if the Empire is pretty incompetent...why do stormtroopers have a policy of asking intruders to surrender? Don't they have stun settings?

Where did the evacuated carrier TIES go? To the light cruiser? To the surface? I know they had to get the imperials off the ship, they can't just kill them like gas miners. Oh, right they totally killed everyone on the light cruiser. 

Twi'leks are odd. The men have humanoid ears and sharp teeth. The women have nub ears and human teeth.  Looking at her dad, how did Hera wind up green? Was her mom green? Is that a dominant gene...the green gene?