Anybody watching Star Wars: Rebels?!

[JazzMaster]

Kinda odd to see nobody on here talking about Star Wars: Rebels yet now that were are already seven episodes deep. I just watched next weeks episode last night (8th episode. you can watch the next episode a week before it airs on DisneyXD if you have the right TV service) and i have to say this show has totally exceeded my expectations. The soundtrack is great. im not sure who is composing but they are using a lot of Original Trilogy themes which gives a totally nostalgic feel. They've done an amazing job building the characters as well. Its really cool how they portray how the Empire's opressive rule effects the day to day lives of the average outer rim civilian. I know there were some naysayers about the animation style, but i have to say, it is quite beautiful. And they do a lot to make it feel like the Clone Wars didnt happen all too long before. (ie: an abandoned republic base with beat up and destroyed LAAT/i Gunships and arc-170s laying around)

I don't want to spoil anything for the people who haven't watched yet, but if this show hasn't grabbed your interested just wait until next weeks episode because things surely start to pick up!
Not a huge plot spoiler at all but:

Hidden/Spoiler:

It's Empire Day and the rebels blow up a prototype advanced TIE fighter being showcased at the celebration

I loved seasons 4-6 of The Clone Wars and was upset it ended with so many questions not answered still. But Rebels makes up for it in a BIG way.

[Twilight_Warrior]

I don't have Disney XD, so I can only see the first episode. I was gonna wait until the season was over and then... acquire... it so I can watch them all without a huge break in between the first episode and all the rest.

[commanderawesome]

I watched the pilot, it was pretty good. A little cheesy, though. I don't have DisneyXD, so i'm probably gunna have to wait for the DVD.

[Teancum]

I've been watching it and enjoying it. It feels slightly more juvenile than Clone Wars, but is still a lot of fun.

[thelegend]

I'd like to watch it. But unfortunately I also don't have DisneyXD. So I can't rate about the series. I still can't understand why they don't wanna show the series on public TV channels. Anyway I am gonna buy the BR Box of season 1 till it is released instead.

[TWINKEYRUNAWAY]

Its not a bad show at all. I cant help but feel sometimes they need more than 20 minutes to tell a story. But thats just my opinion, I find freddy prince jr's and pretty much the whole cast's voice work to be quite good. I just wish they would get rid of that....sling shot thing.

[JazzMaster]

I don't really understand why they chose to air it on XD as opposed to airing it on the regular ol' Disney Channel. They would probably get a lot more people watching it.

I thought the pilot was great, but i have to agree some of the dialogue was pretty cheesy. Some of the characters' little catch phrases were a little too forced imo. But it wasnt really that bad. Not any worse than the TCW was at first. After the first couple of episodes it seemed like the actors found their niche with their character's personalities.

[commanderawesome]

It's simple: They make more money that way. They want people to buy their premium channel to watch the cool shows. Or you're gunna have to pay for it on an online streaming service or buy it on DVD. If you wanna watch it, you gotta pay. But they air the first episode on basic cable so you get all hyped up about it.

[Maveritchell]

I'm enjoying it, albeit not as much as I started to enjoy Clone Wars in its later seasons. I assume this is finding its footing, and given Filoni's experience, I'm willing to let the show ride on that for a while.

I wish that they made the Empire... you know, the Empire. Not battle droids wearing white armor. I'm not really seeing the characters' fear - the Stormtroopers in this show are a bunch of bozos, and the good guys have a Wookiee analogue, a (ugh) Mandalorian, a Jedi, and Aladdawan.

[commanderawesome]

Lol, yeah. Let's be honest, though, the stormtroopers are pretty ridiculous in the films, too. But making the officers that way is a bit overboard. I wanna see some actually intimidating imps, like the elite stormies in TFU. The Inqusitor and his FRIGHTING* yellow eyes isn't doing it for me.

*Sarcasm

[Maveritchell]

Let's be honest, though, the stormtroopers are pretty ridiculous in the films, too.

Yeah, let's be honest. The stormtroopers in the films are brutally efficient.

A New Hope
-Dispatches the crew and troops on board the Corvette with ease
-Savagely murder Jawas, moisture farmers, etc. in search of the droids
-Goes easy on the main cast because the whole plan was for Leia & co. to escape

Empire
-Overruns the main Rebel base in dominating fashion
-Cows Cloud City into subservience, corrals Luke into a confrontation with Vader

Jedi
-Loses a battle against tiny cannibals (can't win 'em all!)

The only time stormtroopers actually fail to accomplish their military objective is when they lose on Endor. You could argue that they screw up in Mos Eisley, but they still had everything under wraps there; they just had a run-in with a Jedi Master. The heroes in the films never have this "oh, haha, let's go bop a stormtrooper on the head" attitude that you see from the Rebels crew. Han & co. are always running away from the Empire - they feel like a threat. In Rebels (so far), there's this really weird carefree attitude when it comes to the Imperial threat.

[commanderawesome]

Ok, that's true, I guess.

[JazzMaster]

The only time stormtroopers actually fail to accomplish their military objective is when they lose on Endor. You could argue that they screw up in Mos Eisley, but they still had everything under wraps there; they just had a run-in with a Jedi Master. The heroes in the films never have this "oh, haha, let's go bop a stormtrooper on the head" attitude that you see from the Rebels crew. Han & co. are always running away from the Empire - they feel like a threat. In Rebels (so far), there's this really weird carefree attitude when it comes to the Imperial threat.

You could argue that in the original trilogy the Empire is facing a pretty big threat themselves: an increasingly popular and capable rebel alliance and Luke Skywalker. Where in Star Wars: Rebels, you have a small band of 5 people disrupting imperial activity on Lothal, a seemingly unimportant outer rim planet. Most of the imperial forces in the old trilogy are under Vaders command, and his troops are supposed to be the best of the best. In Rebels, Most of the imperial forces seen are probably just locals from Lothal that don't have half the training and experience as the imperials seen taking over the rebel base on hoth or guarding the Death Star's shield generator.

[Twilight_Warrior]

The heroes in the films never have this "oh, haha, let's go bop a stormtrooper on the head" attitude

[Maveritchell]

@Twilight:

Ha. Ha. (Kudos, though, for having that .gif right on hand.)

You could argue that in the original trilogy the Empire is facing a pretty big threat themselves: an increasingly popular and capable rebel alliance and Luke Skywalker. Where in Star Wars: Rebels, you have a small band of 5 people disrupting imperial activity on Lothal, a seemingly unimportant outer rim planet. Most of the imperial forces in the old trilogy are under Vaders command, and his troops are supposed to be the best of the best. In Rebels, Most of the imperial forces seen are probably just locals from Lothal that don't have half the training and experience as the imperials seen taking over the rebel base on hoth or guarding the Death Star's shield generator.

You could argue that, and it wouldn't be a bad observation. Narratively, though, it doesn't work for me. The Rebellion/Empire conflict has always been characterized as an archetypal rebellion - a group of plucky, ragtag fighters against overwhelming odds. When you make the enemies a joke, it doesn't sell the "impossible odds" nature of the story.

Clone Wars got away with the enemies as a bit of a joke because they were operating on different levels of scale - all their conflicts were overtly military in the classical sense. There was very little guerrilla warfare, and there was a whole lot of giant armies against giant armies. What the droids lacked in individual seriousness could be made up for by having a ton of them.

The Empire's massive too, but it's problematic to show massive amounts of stormtroopers as opponents when your enemies are a small group. For the story to really work, you have to stick close to the same order of magnitude. That's why it's important for individual Imperial troops to be menacing. In this show we get less of the "faceless menace" feel and more of the "incompetent brute" flavor.

Anyway, like I said - it's early, and I'm optimistic for the future of the show given its (creator's) pedigree. Right now, though, it's a little sillier than I'd like.

[commanderawesome]

On a side note, I'd love to see some of the Imperial tech from TFU. That stuff is WAY more menacing then what I've seen in rebels. I mean really, are those yellow eyes supposted to scare me? The yellow eyes we see in practically EVERY Sith/Dark Jedi character?

[THEWULFMAN]

If they wanted weaker soldiers to fight, they could have gone with regular Imperial Army soldiers rather than Stormtroopers. But then they wouldn't be faceless or iconic anymore. *shrugs*

My dad and I are enjoying it. I agree, it's not as good as later seasons of TCW, but it's starting decently. I'm also appreciating the tiny nods here and there, like the Disruptors in that one episode are from SWG and no where else, so obviously someone is a SWG fan on that team. Then (this isn't a spoiler) there's the subtle reference to Base Delta Zero in the episode Rise of the Old Masters. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Base_Delta_Zero

[Kingpin]

-Savagely murder Jawas, moisture farmers, etc. in search of the droids

Well, here this out:
The Stormtroopers, in fact, did not do that. It was the infamous bounty hunter, Boba Fett, because of these reasons:
*Stormtroopers do not use flamethrowers in the original trilogy, Boba Fett does.
*Boba Fett is seen on Mos Eisley in the added scene were Jabba and Han talk.
*In Empire, Darth Vader goes to Boba and says "No incineration" or something like that.

[THEWULFMAN]

Okay but, ignoring any other objections, treating this like a murder investigation, what exactly is Boba Fett's motive for doing this?

[Kingpin]

Hired by Darth Vader to get the droids. As we find out in Empire, he did hire him before.