Star Wars: Rebels

[RogueIce]

So for those who can access it, Spark of Rebellion will be available on Disney Channel VOD, WatchDisneyXD.com and the WatchDisneyXD app starting next Monday, September 29th.

Yeah. I'll have to wait for it to be on TV even though Disney's in our cable package. The price of patronizing the local telecom and ISP instead of Time-Warner, I suppose.

Shouldn't it still show up in your VOD? Or does the local telecom lack that?

FWIW even though I use FiOS I can never remember the fucking password, and it takes too much effort for me to look it up (well okay all I need to do is go look at my account number on the bill and do the online doohickey but fuck it). So I'll have to VOD it, which probably means annoying unskippable commercials as all On Demand seems to be these days.

[Vance]

An irritated Kallus kills a stormtrooper in Rebels, reminiscent to Grevious's numerous outbursts towards the B1 retards in the Clone Wars. Overall though the film wasn't half as bad as I had feared it was going to be, but nor was it half as good as what I'd want or expect either. I feel something along the lines of a gritty live action series would have been more appropriate to the era, where we could really see the evil of the Empire being dished out in a deeper and more realistic fashion. I guess they feel there is not as much money in it. Or they are just trying to secure future fans from younger audiences.

[Arawn Fenn]

reminiscent to Grevious's numerous outbursts towards the B1 retards

Grievous, not Grevious.

[Rogue 9]

Just got done watching the premiere. Spoiler

So, was every gunner on that Star Destroyer asleep the entire time? I don't think it fired a shot in the entire time the Ghost was zipping around outside it.

[The Romulan Republic]

Its premiered? I missed it.

How does it compare to The Clone Wars?

[Rogue 9]

More thoughts, since I just got done discussing it with someone else anyway. Spoiler

It was a fun watch, but how the hell did they pull off half of what they did? A Star Destroyer isn't something to mess with, but the one Kallus (I still can't believe they named him that) rode in on was completely toothless; the gunners must have all been on coffee break or something because it never fired a single shot. Wookiees can apparently take blaster fire to their naked torsos and not care. A squad of stormtroopers that isn't deliberately trying to miss (hello, A New Hope) can fill a narrow ship corridor with blaster fire and hit nothing, even when it's full of our heroes such that there's more areas that have targets than don't. The protagonists can just sail on up to Kessel, one of the most heavily guarded prisons in the galaxy, and land completely undetected. They can do the same thing to a fucking Star Destroyer's main hangar bay. The character interactions are great, but the show failed to give me any sense of conflict, because they were clearly never actually in danger.

I don't have a basis for comparison to The Clone Wars, having never watched it.

[Burak Gazan]

............

So, Worst Fears Realized

make the Empire look like retards.....thanks ever so much
Oh well

[Borgholio]

Would it really kill them to portray the Empire as...you know...a very dangerous entity that has an iron grip on the galaxy and has a million to one chance of actually being defeated?

[Burak Gazan]

I said 9 months ago this series would faceplant from 40 floors up if they failed to present the Empire as anything less than competent to crack.

And here we are

[Rogue 9]

To be fair, they are presented as having an iron grip on Lothal (and as being complete dicks about it for no particularly good reason) that the rebel cell doesn't dare try to take on directly, but when events force their hand and they have to do just that, they casually breeze through with no trouble, in situations that by all rights should have killed them stone dead. They could have set up the story such that the protagonists could accomplish nearly everything they did by having to work for it, with the Empire on the verge of catching and crushing them at any time, but they didn't - they took the lazy Saturday morning cartoon route of having the villains just suck at being villainous.

[The Romulan Republic]

The Empire should be portrayed as it was in the films. If this show is falling short of that, hopefully their will be appearances by Vader, Palpatine, and Thrawn. While The Clone Wars had bumbling rank and file infantry too, it often made a major villain fairly impressive.

Edit: I'm not sure if Thrawn is canon any more. But that's no reason they can't add him.

[Burak Gazan]

If you want the good guys to be taken seriously, then they have to have a serious opponent to face; otherwise you have a large -unfunny -joke. The Goddamned Empire isn't just Sidious, Vader, and a few guys that work for them that aren't complete incompetent assholes. Making them look like dicks - and clueless ones at that - is just infuriating.

You called it; it's an Imperial Star Destroyer - Threepio was crapping lube and bolts when the Falcon (a ship I venture somewhat hotter than whatever POS they have here) made an attack run. It's not a fucking game of GTA5 with respawn at will

[The Romulan Republic]

I don't have a problem with the Empire's men being dicks. The Empire is a genocidal dictatorship. However, they should be believably dicks as opposed to cartoonish dicks.

[Rogue 9]

Spoiler

The worst part, I think, was when the Star Destroyer's comms officer hailed them with a "Surrender or be destroyed" speech, and the warship didn't immediately open fire when the response was, and I quote, "Blow it out your exhaust vent." I mean, really?

[Rogue 9]

Ghetto edit:

That said, it wasn't all negative. Spoiler

The Empire being a lot of bumbling fools aside, the protagonists do feel pretty good as characters (potentially apart from Ezra). The group fits together really well, and makes a believable team, though their specific motivations (besides Kanan's, which are obvious) haven't been fleshed out yet, so it partially remains to be seen. The voice acting was decent, and I like the design of the Ghost. If they step up their game with the Empire I feel like this could be a good series; I just have a sinking feeling that, Inquisitor aside, they won't. And even if they do follow through on their explicit promise that the Inquisitor is bad news, will have successes, his appearance means our heroes are in trouble, etc, etc, etc, needing to use a Dark Jedi as a crutch to actually be able to threaten the good guys is inexcusable.

[Vympel]

My view pretty much accords with Rogue 9. Its very hard to watch a Star Wars show and see the hero ship not get fired on by an ISD. I guess all the gunners really were on coffee break.

[Lord Revan]

Spoiler

I thought she never actually transmitted the "blow it out of your exhaust" line but rather said it to herself, that said it would have been nice if the empire was a bit more dangerous then it was

[FaxModem1]

I watched the pilot. It makes sense that the crew did rather well for most of the episode. They're dealing with the stormtroopers out in the boonies and the frontier, where the worst thing they have to go against are peasants who might disagree with their blatant thievery and extortion.

Of course, once they start building up a reputation, I expect them to face much more difficult foes. If they don't, well, it's going to follow GI JOE style kids show logic.

[NecronLord]

I'm just going to go right ahead and assume the sensor-scrambler (described on the website as 'not an actual cloaking device') is somehow preventing the Star Destroyers getting a good bead on the thing and is how they sneak up on the imperials so much. Hopefully that will be codified at some point in the future.

The Ghost, is, as its name suggests, all but invisible to sensors, according to the brief mention in the episode and better clarified by various tie-in media. The idea is, I believe, that it's a custom-modded alliance stealth ship. Certainly it has an 'amazing ability to sneak past imperial sensors undetected.' While it's no doubt slower than the Falcon, it's certainly special.

Source

It's worth noting there is definitely more to the ship than we've seen thus far, going by that, and other things.

[Thanas]

The premiere sucked.

[NecronLord]

I'd agree, it sucked indeed, I was particularly mindfucked by the bit with Ezra hiding underneath the stairs in the cell.

[Adam Reynolds]

I feel like this is completely the wrong era for something that was largely oriented towards kids. The era of Imperial rule was supposed to be among the darkest times in the setting.

[Borgholio]

I feel like this is completely the wrong era for something that was largely oriented towards kids. The era of Imperial rule was supposed to be among the darkest times in the setting.

Which is why they made the Empire come off as comical pussies. A "plausible" Empire would be too dark and scary for children.

[Metahive]

Anyone remember that Clone Wars episode where another cloaked ship was evading a bigger warship? There the commander of the latter first ordered to blanket the area with fire and then quickly devised a counter-measure by adjusting torpedoes to lock onto the cloaked ship's magnetic signature. Too bad the Empire doesn't employ those Spider people, huh?

[Crazedwraith]

I feel like this is completely the wrong era for something that was largely oriented towards kids. The era of Imperial rule was supposed to be among the darkest times in the setting.

Which is why they made the Empire come off as comical pussies. A "plausible" Empire would be too dark and scary for children.

Yes, which is why the main films, set when the Empire has consolitated its rule to the point it can blow planets away, are obviously far too dark and scary for kids.