STAR WARS Rebels new animated series!

[joshvanrad]

Lol...standing by.

Ok, so here we go:

First of all, I will preface this by saying I did not care for Clone Wars at all, so that has a huge impact on my views of season 2. In total, there was probably 10 episodes of CW that I genuinely liked. During the first season and the introduction-2-episode-movie of the second season of Rebels, I was seeing some old school Star Wars magic. I thought Dave Filoni had put in more substance than he had during CW. To me, CW was a very cheap brand of entertainment, and he did a lot of things just for flavor.

In season two of Rebels, it was like Dave went back to his toy box and just started pulling out nostalgia items and cramming them into Rebels, whether they fit or not. The old clones, Ashoka, and Darth Maul were the biggest issues I had. It was like he just can't let go of those characters so he has to figure out a way to fit them in, and he essentially said as much during one of their panels last year. I can handle Ashoka being in it if they want to do a little "last known surviving Jedi" storyline, but using her as a focal point throughout the season made it seem really cheap. I think Filoni learned a bit too much from GL, and like the prequels, sacrifices impactful substance for flavor.

Secondly, there are no extended themes or arcs in this show. I think they need to put more faith in today's children- that they can focus on a story that lasts for more than 22 minutes. The one off format doesn't provide enough time to develop the characters and relationships, so you end up with a character that is essentially the same from beginning of the series to the end. Ezra had a little bit of development throughout season 2, but the rest of the characters are essentially the same as they were in s1e1.

Elements that I didn't care for were the Mandalorian pilots, but that is completely personal. I could go on a rant about how the CW destroyed Mandalorians, but for now I'll just say... I don't like what the Mandalorians are in canon. The space whales were really really really stupid. That was taking concept art and hamfistedly smashing it into a show... because why? Because it was concept art once? The go-go-gadget-sabercopters were an absolute atrocity. Like I was saying before, it was something done completely in the name of style, foregoing any decent concept or substance. Another style over substance thing was Vader surfing on his fighter, for what reason other than Dave Filoni was playing with his Darth Vader action figure and thought it would be "totally badass" if Darth Vader was "just like totally standing on top of his fighter as he drifted into battle because that is totally ominous" would that exist? THAT IS CANON NOW! Darth Vader force-surfs on his TIE fighter.

And lastly, DARTH MAUL! Dave... let him go already, dude! He died in TPM and he never really had a personality or character traits to begin with. He was a lightsaber ballerina, and that's all he was ever supposed to be. Now, we have Maul die and come back and die and come back and die and come back, and die again... maybe? The CW made the robot-spider-legs Darth Maul arc stupid, and now Rebels just keeps slamming his stupid horned-head down our throats.

There were a handful of smaller elements that I didn't care for, but those were the big ones that rubbed me the wrong way throughout the season. It just started to lose it's ties to SW, and became some generic adventure show. Especially, that last episode. The last episode felt like some dungeon crawler movie... not Star Wars. In summation, I like to go to a galaxy far, far away, and it just didn't take me there.

 

[Jaitea]

Ok, so here we go:

First of all, I will preface this by saying I did not care for Clone Wars at all, so that has a huge impact on my views of season 2. In total, there was probably 10 episodes of CW that I genuinely liked. During the first season and the introduction-2-episode-movie of the second season, I was seeing some old school Star Wars magic. I thought Dave Filoni had put in more substance than he had during CW. To me, CW was a very cheap brand of entertainment, and he did a lot of things just for flavor.

In season two of Rebels, it was like Dave went back to his toy box and just started pulling out nostalgia items and cramming them into Rebels, whether they fit or not. The old clones, Ashoka, and Darth Maul were the biggest issues I had. It was like he just can't let go of those characters so he has to figure out a way to fit them in, and he essentially said as much during one of their panels last year. I can handle Ashoka being in it if they want to do a little "last known surviving Jedi" storyline, but using her as a focal point throughout the season made it seem really cheap. I think Filoni learned a bit too much from GL, and like the prequels, sacrifices impactful substance for flavor.

Secondly, there are no extended themes or arcs in this show. I think they need to put more faith in today's children- that they can focus on a story that lasts for more than 22 minutes. The one off format doesn't provide enough time to develop the characters and relationships, so you end up with a character that is essentially the same from beginning of the series to the end. Ezra had a little bit of development throughout season 2, but the rest of the characters are essentially the same as they were in s1e1.

Elements that I didn't care for were the Mandalorian pilots, but that is completely personal. I could go on a rant about how the CW destroyed Mandalorians, but for now I'll just say... I don't like what the Mandalorians are in canon. The space whales were really really really stupid. That was taking concept art and hamfistedly smashing it into a show... because why? Because it was concept art once? The go-go-gadget-sabercopters were an absolute atrocity. Like I was saying before, it was something done completely in the name of style, foregoing any decent concept or substance. Another style over substance thing was Vader surfing on his fighter, for what reason other than Dave Filoni was playing with his Darth Vader action figure and thought it would be "totally badass" if Darth Vader was "just like totally standing on top of his fighter as he drifted into battle because that is totally ominous" would that exist? THAT IS CANON NOW! Darth Vader force-surfs on his TIE fighter.

And lastly, DARTH MAUL! Dave... let him go already, dude! He died in TPM and he never really had a personality or character traits to begin with. He was a lightsaber ballerina, and that's all he was ever supposed to be. Now, we have Maul die and come back and die and come back and die and come back, and die again... maybe? The CW made the robot-spider-legs Darth Maul arc stupid, and now Rebels just keeps slamming his stupid horned-head down our throats.

There were a handful of smaller elements that I didn't care for, but those were the big ones that rubbed me the wrong way throughout the season. It just started to lose it's ties to SW, and became some generic adventure show. Especially, that last episode. The last episode felt like some dungeon crawler movie... not Star Wars. In summation, I like to go to a galaxy far, far away, and it just didn't take me there.

OH,....are we brothers from another mother!!

I have EXACTLY the same thoughts as you

* BE AWARE*

Get ready for the opposition to our taste

John

 

[joshvanrad]

OH,....are we brothers from another mother!!

I have EXACTLY the same thoughts as you

* BE AWARE*

Get ready for the opposition to our taste

John

I've already been railed on for voicing those opinions. That's why I don't opine in this thread anymore. The only reason I did now is because Wook asked for it.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[KrangPrime]

OH,....are we brothers from another mother!!

I have EXACTLY the same thoughts as you

* BE AWARE*

Get ready for the opposition to our taste

John

Welcome to the club ;o)

Just be ware, people will make you the poster child to rally against for whatever reason, just cause you voice your opinions ;o)


But never be afraid to voice how you do and how you want ;o).

For my opinion.. I didn't care for the Clone Wars movies, because the acting was stiff, the dialouge was goofy, and anakin as a whole was just handled too simply/badly.
Plus I hate hayden christiensen any time he's on screen.

The Clone Wars ANIMATED series, however, got everything right IMHO. adventure, new alien races.

I will agree i hated the mandalore changes. but, I guess if they had a whole warrior race of boba fetts, it'd make fett less special. and you'd also be wondering where all the other fetts in the galaxy where. so, for that, i can deal with the changes. but only that.

Yeah. Darth Maul should have died in the Clone Wars series at the emporers hands. I HATE that they left him alive and then didn't follow up. felt like a george decision.
Asohka I wasn't too sure of at the start, but grew to love her arc. i'm glad she's back in rebels.


For me, Rebels is simply too disnified and simple. they are afraid to take risks. I w as down right shocked when those two imperials lost their heads in a disney show...but i guess that was all they allowed themselves.

The empire is a walk over.. and i don't buy those imperials in season one, have 'matured' into what we see now just because thrawn is around.
And yeah, helicopter sabers is beyond stupid.

Whatever the next star wars series is, it needs to step up it's game. Who'd have thought i'd be pining for clone wars characters like in that last Rebels episode, when Darth Vader is roaming about the galaxy?

 

[Halliwax]

i just finished it right before TWD started. this has to be one of my favorite episodes so far. the captain is a favorite of mine, I'm glad they gave him some air time in action!

 

[KrangPrime]

i just finished it right before TWD started. this has to be one of my favorite episodes so far. the captain is a favorite of mine, I'm glad they gave him some air time in action!

anyone notice zeb and sabine are pretty much ignored so far, along with hera?

 

[Halliwax]

anyone notice zeb and sabine are pretty much ignored so far, along with hera?

they are saving sabine. sabine is going to have a huge episode coming up. we see in the trailers and commercials she ends up with the dark saber in her hand. i think that episode will be devoted to her. i think last weeks episode was hera's episode. its seems each season they get at least 1 episode devoted to each character. tonights episode was rex's

 

[astroboy]

So the wook asked for my opinion.

I loved the clone wars. I have absolutely no knowledge of EU so any changes into Mandalore were unnoticed by me. I loved that culture on the show and I loved the long game (16 episodes or so) they played with maul and the civil war of mandalore)

As for rebels, I felt that the first season had a real 80's sitcom feel to it. They were mostly bottle episodes that rarely left Lothol.

But the season 2 trailer looked promising. It looked like they were going to up their game. And the first episode with Vader was awesome. The ashoka moment was killer.

But then it went into a lot of the traps of the first season. I just think this show needs to be more serialized. 22 minutes isn't long enough to invest in anything. It still feels like a sit-com.

I know people say that it's for kids, but kids can handle developed arcs. My absolutely favorite show when I was 9 was robotech. Because it took its storytelling so much further.

So because they largely stick to a different situation every week, it feels like a lot of lost opportunities. Look at that great moment where they arrived at geonosis to find it abandoned (or everyone dead). But they didn't even land their ship! There was a ton of myth building to happen.
Or his week for instance. They basically signed off on the clone wars. A stupid little skirmish that climaxed with a single bomb knocking an AT AT off kilter.

A lost faction of the drool army is actually pretty cool even if they were employed by someone else. There's a lot you can do with that.

So far season three has been better (even if I wasn't satisfied by the droid episode) so I'm looking forward to some shifting. And because this is canon, I'm invested in finding out what happens.

And I'll be really excited if they connect any of these characters to the live action films.

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

 

[Riceball]

I know people say that it's for kids, but kids can handle developed arcs. My absolutely favorite show when I was 9 was Robotech. Because it took its storytelling so much further.

The problem is that in the US the general perception is that animation is for kids, it's been that way for the longest time. The '90s changed that to a degree with the Simpsons but all that was changed was the perception that adult animation had to be funny and revolve around somewhat crude humor. Yeah, there's Robotech but you really can't count that since it wasn't an original US production, but I guess that Harmony Gold does deserve some credit for preserving the tone of the original animes that made up Robotech. I'm not saying that this is right or that it's the way it should be but it's the way that studio execs see things and the producers of shows like Rebels do their best to produce what's supposed to kids' show that also appeals to adults.

 

[astroboy]

The problem is that in the US the general perception is that animation is for kids, it's been that way for the longest time. The '90s changed that to a degree with the Simpsons but all that was changed was the perception that adult animation had to be funny and revolve around somewhat crude humor. Yeah, there's Robotech but you really can't count that since it wasn't an original US production, but I guess that Harmony Gold does deserve some credit for preserving the tone of the original animes that made up Robotech. I'm not saying that this is right or that it's the way it should be but it's the way that studio execs see things and the producers of shows like Rebels do their best to produce what's supposed to kids' show that also appeals to adults.

I'm a huge Macross fan but even as robotech, it still dealt with all of the major story telling. The fact that Roy died 2/3's through the thing was amazing. That would be like killing off Kanan.

Even comparing rebels to say, transformers prime it comes up short.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Halliwax]

So the wook asked for my opinion.

I loved the clone wars. I have absolutely no knowledge of EU so any changes into Mandalore were unnoticed by me. I loved that culture on the show and I loved the long game (16 episodes or so) they played with maul and the civil war of mandalore)

As for rebels, I felt that the first season had a real 80's sitcom feel to it. They were mostly bottle episodes that rarely left Lothol.

But the season 2 trailer looked promising. It looked like they were going to up their game. And the first episode with Vader was awesome. The ashoka moment was killer.

But then it went into a lot of the traps of the first season. I just think this show needs to be more serialized. 22 minutes isn't long enough to invest in anything. It still feels like a sit-com.

I know people say that it's for kids, but kids can handle developed arcs. My absolutely favorite show when I was 9 was robotech. Because it took its storytelling so much further.

So because they largely stick to a different situation every week, it feels like a lot of lost opportunities. Look at that great moment where they arrived at geonosis to find it abandoned (or everyone dead). But they didn't even land their ship! There was a ton of myth building to happen.
Or his week for instance. They basically signed off on the clone wars. A stupid little skirmish that climaxed with a single bomb knocking an AT AT off kilter.

A lost faction of the drool army is actually pretty cool even if they were employed by someone else. There's a lot you can do with that.

So far season three has been better (even if I wasn't satisfied by the droid episode) so I'm looking forward to some shifting. And because this is canon, I'm invested in finding out what happens.

And I'll be really excited if they connect any of these characters to the live action films.

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

thats exactly how i feel about dragon ball z. many fans hate how long it takes to explain things but its because of all the story development. when i heard a new series was coming out kia i believe it was called and it was going to be remastered i was excited. until i learned most of the story telling was cut out and all the action scenes remained... not what i wanted. i loved DBZ for all its characters and their stories being explained

 

[KrangPrime]

thats exactly how i feel about dragon ball z. many fans hate how long it takes to explain things but its because of all the story development. when i heard a new series was coming out kia i believe it was called and it was going to be remastered i was excited. until i learned most of the story telling was cut out and all the action scenes remained... not what i wanted. i loved DBZ for all its characters and their stories being explained

I was particularly annoyed at how badly they edited the final Cell Battle and Gohan training videl. their whole romance, the only romance in the entire series thatfit and worked, was ripped to shreds in Kai and it lost it's fun.. sigh.

 

[Jaitea]

Welcome to the club ;o)

Just be ware, people will make you the poster child to rally against for whatever reason, just cause you voice your opinions ;o)


But never be afraid to voice how you do and how you want ;o).

I'm not worried about voicing my opinion,....I know I'm not always right,....but I'm very seldom wrong

J

 

[KrangPrime]

I'm not worried about voicing my opinion,....I know I'm not always right,....but I'm very seldom wrong

J

I actually saw a T shirt that said almost that exact same thing. i was thinking of buying it ;o)

 

[Jaitea]

I actually saw a T shirt that said almost that exact same thing. i was thinking of buying it ;o)

Ha....that's a thing my father used to say,....I swear I'm turning into him

J

 

[Riceball]

I'm a huge Macross fan but even as robotech, it still dealt with all of the major story telling. The fact that Roy died 2/3's through the thing was amazing. That would be like killing off Kanan.

Even comparing rebels to say, transformers prime it comes up short.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

As I said previously, that's because of its anime roots/original source material and not because of any great writing or vision on the part of HG. Anime is different because in Japan they treat animation the way we want to see it treated here, as an artistic medium and not a genre that's just for kids. As it stands, I feel that the attitudes towards animation is slowly changing, the writing in a lot of animated shows is a lot more mature than it used to be, even if they're still aimed primarily as kids, and all the Disney/Pixar stuff, while family oriented, is not dumbed down that much either. I think that in another 10 -15 years we'll start seeing a paradigm shift in the kinds of animated shows we'll be seeing on big and small screens as all of the kids growing up watching anime today start moving up the corporate ladder and are in positions to say what kinds of shows & movies we get to see.

 

[karmajay]

I think the reason they've included those characters is because they are VERY popular with a majority of Star Wars fans (Ahsoka, Maul). As far as characters, Zeb and Sabine have always been the 3rd tier of characters (I love Sabine) compared to Hera and then Kannan and Ezra.

I also feel that hey have done a good job with season arcs although of course there are episodes that don't touch on the arc at all.

Just my opposing opinions. As long as we respect each other no issues with that

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Episode Guide posted: http://www.starwars.com/tv-shows/star-wars-rebels/the-last-battle-episode-guide

Listen to a full track from Star Wars Rebels “The Last Battle" by Kevin Kiner

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

 

[KrangPrime]

Ha....that's a thing my father used to say,....I swear I'm turning into him

J

I'm thinking of also adding this to my replies as needed ;o)

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfzZJ_GZXhQ

With the way this show goes with villains,

they'll hit him with a pie, do the crab walk outta there going 'wo wo wo woo'.

These clips seem so promising, but the show doesn't really deliver on the emotion of them 85% of the time.