[SPOILERS]: Star Wars: Rebels - Thoughts?

By GM Hooly, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

I'm glad it wasn't. It's a big galaxy and their are quintillions of beings in it. We have a whole new cast of characters, why bring in ones from another story line? Plus Chewie being here means something is off in the timeline as Chewie doesn't mention other Jedi to Luke at any point in the OT, let alone the EU.

pet peeves

  • The visuals and the audio don't line up in lots of shots. You hear 20 TIE shots, but see 1 or 2.
  • Get rid of that **** Wilhelm scream. Seriously, not everyone has to die with that noise.
  • Stop making stormtroopers nothing but a joke. The lack of discipline and coordination in what are supposed to be the elite troopers just makes me cringe.

I'm glad it wasn't. It's a big galaxy and their are quintillions of beings in it. We have a whole new cast of characters, why bring in ones from another story line? Plus Chewie being here means something is off in the timeline as Chewie doesn't mention other Jedi to Luke at any point in the OT, let alone the EU.

Thinking like that presumes Gearge et al had the foresight or knowledge that we would be where we are today with everything in the Star Wars universe. That is what retconning is for. And with the Obi Wan holovid/holocron? they are trying to have some connection to others aspects.

  • The holocron isn't them talking to the actual Kenobi
  • thinking like that lets new characters come into a new story rather than rehashing the same people. There are 300,000,000 people in the US. When you go to a different state, do you keep running into the same 5 people? Then why, in a galaxy of quintillions, of which several million or more should be on each side of the fight, do the same 5 people show up?

Look, I don't mind the heroes getting the upper hand on Troopers because they use their smarts, or lure the troops into a trap. I don't even mind the occasional joke at their expense like Kaluus' response when the one Trooper asks him, "First time facing a Jedi, huh?" But when you make them the constant butt of jokes, or look totally incompetent you are hurting the dramatic tension in the show. Go look at the Rebels short "Art Attack" where the Troopers find a bomb (and it's obviously a bomb), and one Trooper sticks his face less than a foot away from it, just stands there and eventually responds, "Uh oh." Or the Zeb short, "Entanglement" where for 2 minutes you watch Troopers being completly incompetent boobs, and silently wonder why "Yakity Sax" isn't being used as the soundtrack for the short. Yancy

[*]Stop making stormtroopers nothing but a joke. The lack of discipline and coordination in what are supposed to be the elite troopers just makes me cringe.

REB_IA_1350_1500.jpg

That moment when you realize that ErikB/Sylpheed and Dave Filoni are the same person...

The Storm Troopers are pretty pathetic, the Art Attack clip of the Trooper saying uh-oh looking at the bomb and then explodes, was stupid and no one died. The bomb was full of paint but blew pieces of the Tie over the wall. This is geared towards younglings.

I spent 23 years in the US Air Force and have seen some pretty funny things happen.

1. I was walking under the wing of the F-16 that I was assigned to maintain with my gas mask and my helmet on and bumped my head. (See the Stormtrooper bumb his head in a new hope)

2. I saw had a guy working for me drive a aircraft tow vehicle into a pole on the flight line and the vehicle wasn't damaged but the pole was bent at 90 degrees. (first 2 brings up a good point, US military leadership says we are the most elite and technologically advanced military in the world but things happen, oh...and only 2% of the US population has served in the military which also makes us elite)

3. I was over in Korea as a young Airman and the Koreans came to borrow a piece of equipment and as I was showing them how to use it getting my hands dirty in the process. The officer in charge of them started yelling at them to give me something to wipe my hands of with and really got mad when he saw me wipe them on my pants hitting one of them up side the head. ( I am a maintainer and it didn't bother me getting dirty)

4. I was stationed in Turkey and saw a Turkish noncommissioned officer pull his side arm (ala WH 40K commissar) on one of his troops because the troop didn't move fast enough.

5. Drive by a Turkish perimiter guard shack on the base and there are bullet holes in the walls and the windows of them. Not because we were attacked, but because of what happened in #4 above. Scared to get punished by their NCOs for sleeping. The guards would shoot at each other in the middle of the night to keep each other awake, LOL.

The Turks are very proud of their military as are all other countries in the world, which country is better? That's not what this is about. All militaries are professional.

*Edit no one got shot in story 4 above. Scared the crap out of me though that it happened.

Edited by Osprey

Seems part of my post was chopped off and is not recoverable.

The gist of it was: I can sit down and watch military type movies and casually rip them apart but not enjoy them. So I choose to ignore the inadequacies of them for the enjoyment of them reminding myself "it's a kids show/movie" and after doing that it gets easier. It is entertainment, the stories I told you above compares real life to imagination and I could tell you more stories that are pretty funny from when I was instructing but that would be a different forum altogether. Sit back and enjoy the ride because one day you will be older and have kids of your own that sit down and tell you your special affects suck because of this and that, and it will make you feel old.

:P :mellow: :o :( ;)

About the stormtroopers not being very competent in the series so far, I wonder how much of that is due to the planet the initial episode takes place on being something of a galactic backwater. After all, if it's not a high-priority resource (and there's no active Rebel Alliance), do they really need to send their best and brightest for what amounts to routine guard duty? Once the crew of the Ghost start really making a name for themselves in the region, it could be that the ISB Agent's reports will result in him getting a better quality of stormtrooper assigned to replace those lost, and thus we'll see troopers that aren't total chumps.

More than likely, the stormtroopers we've seen are akin to Army grunts that are only a few months out of basic training. They may have a certain degree of skill, but they're lacking combat experience. I've known a number of folks that have served in the Army. Some where very bright and on the ball, and some... well, some simply weren't, with one individual leaving us wondering how he'd managed to get through boot camp without getting himself or anyone else killed.

So it could just be that the stormtroopers seen the series aren't the best and brightest that the Stormtrooper Corps has to offer. The stormtroopers we saw taking the Tantive IV were (at least in EU/Legends) retcon'd to be the 501st Legion, aka Vader's Fist, and answered to a guy that did not tolerate incompetence. The ones assigned to the Death Star were probably above the norm, but I'm pretty sure they weren't 501st troopers. They just didn't look all that great because of the high likelihood that they were ordered (by Tarkin and Vader) to pursue but to ultimately let the princess and her rescuers escape. Leia was right in that their escape from the Empire's top-secret battle station was "too easy," though Han was (at the time) still to full of himself to accept that she might actually have a point.

About the stormtroopers not being very competent in the series so far, I wonder how much of that is due to the planet the initial episode takes place on being something of a galactic backwater. After all, if it's not a high-priority resource (and there's no active Rebel Alliance), do they really need to send their best and brightest for what amounts to routine guard duty? Once the crew of the Ghost start really making a name for themselves in the region, it could be that the ISB Agent's reports will result in him getting a better quality of stormtrooper assigned to replace those lost, and thus we'll see troopers that aren't total chumps.

More than likely, the stormtroopers we've seen are akin to Army grunts that are only a few months out of basic training. They may have a certain degree of skill, but they're lacking combat experience. I've known a number of folks that have served in the Army. Some where very bright and on the ball, and some... well, some simply weren't, with one individual leaving us wondering how he'd managed to get through boot camp without getting himself or anyone else killed.

So it could just be that the stormtroopers seen the series aren't the best and brightest that the Stormtrooper Corps has to offer. The stormtroopers we saw taking the Tantive IV were (at least in EU/Legends) retcon'd to be the 501st Legion, aka Vader's Fist, and answered to a guy that did not tolerate incompetence. The ones assigned to the Death Star were probably above the norm, but I'm pretty sure they weren't 501st troopers. They just didn't look all that great because of the high likelihood that they were ordered (by Tarkin and Vader) to pursue but to ultimately let the princess and her rescuers escape. Leia was right in that their escape from the Empire's top-secret battle station was "too easy," though Han was (at the time) still to full of himself to accept that she might actually have a point.

Exactly, one last RL story that matches this thought process. As an instructor teaching F-16 Hot Training (training on acft with running engines as opposed to Cold, maintenance trainers) we tell the students that there is over 10,000 pounds of thrust coming out of the exhaust and it is very hot. It was the day before we were graduating that class and the students had been around 20 to 25 acft that were running by that time. I had a very pretty Porto Rican girl that had a crush on one of the permanent party guys (the guy had been in for 4 years or so) and went and had her hair done very nicely. She was walking behind a jet and ducked to walk under the exhaust and her headset slid down and she slung her head up to make them sit correctly again catching her hair in the exhaust cone of the engine, the only thing that saved her hair from singeing off was the hair product she had put in it. We called her rooster the rest of the day. If she hadn't had the product in she would have burned half her hair off. These guys are supposed to be able to show up to their next base and be able to work without any supervision. So it may be that the Stormtroopers that at the backwater planets are Sgt Snuffies and joe bag of dough-nuts or new guys trying to earn more prestige to get out of the backwater.

Look, I don't mind the heroes getting the upper hand on Troopers because they use their smarts, or lure the troops into a trap. I don't even mind the occasional joke at their expense like Kaluus' response when the one Trooper asks him, "First time facing a Jedi, huh?"

But when you make them the constant butt of jokes, or look totally incompetent you are hurting the dramatic tension in the show. Go look at the Rebels short "Art Attack" where the Troopers find a bomb (and it's obviously a bomb), and one Trooper sticks his face less than a foot away from it, just stands there and eventually responds, "Uh oh." Or the Zeb short, "Entanglement" where for 2 minutes you watch Troopers being completly incompetent boobs, and silently wonder why "Yakity Sax" isn't being used as the soundtrack for the short.

Yancy

it is a show for 7-10 year olds. That is the kind of thing a 7-10 year will like.

Yes. It is a cartoon aimed at kids. Watch and enjoy it for what it is. No need to rationalize beyond that.

On a side note, they are showing that hour long episode on the Family network this Friday here in the Great White North. I thought I might have to scoop the dvd to see it. May still anyways. Friday night I can sit there with the lego sets and watch it. Just need a set with the Sabine character and I'll have the whole team.

Also..they are minions up against PCs. Of course they are going to get their asses handed to them. Even by the low XP kid.

  • The holocron isn't them talking to the actual Kenobi
  • thinking like thatt lets new characters come into a new story rather than rehashing the same people. There are 300,000,000 people in the US. When you go to a different state, do you keep running into the same 5 people? Then why, in a galaxy of quintillions, of which several million or more should be on each side of the fight, do the same 5 people show up?

I'm not saying the series should be about familiar characters. Only that there use ties us to other parts like the original series or the Clone Wars. I don't know what Obi Wan is, a old holovid message or a holocron, but he is a familiar character. I know we will be seeing R2 and C3P0. Should be interesting to see R2 and Chopper together. Bail Organa will be about so I imagine a younger Princess Leia will be too. And who knows, maybe they'll end up a a desert planet we all know and Ezra and a young man named Luke might hang out. The series will focus on the new characters but people will want some familier elements here and there too.

You the thought that "many" have seen an advanced screening seems a bit... rude/mean/unhappy doesn't it? The show doesn't air until October 3rd for normal people. at least give some people a chance to watch it before trying to spoil it.

Well, to be fair, he did mark it as spoilers in the thread title. Any clickage is on the head of the clickee at that point.

As for the episode - it was actually pretty good. While it was still kind of pilot-y, it was MUCH better than the Clone Wars pilot/movie they did for the launch of that show. It was witty, the characters were well developed, and it set the stage without being too cludgy about it. Oh, and I really like the music - composer Kevin Kiner did a good job with weaving in the Real Star Wars music with the show.

So far? I'm digging it. Cant wait for next-next friday. . . .

***edit***

Actually there is just ONE thing that really bugs me: the 'neck' of the Star Destroyers are still WAY too skinny and long. See what I mean:

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Remember that the Star Destroyer on the left is an older ship by at least 5 years than the one on the right. The way I'm looking at it is the SD with the shorter neck and wider bridge structure is one that has had a refit from the earlier configuration.

I enjoyed it. My kids(ages 8, 6, 4) were on the edge of their seat the whole show, and begged for the next episode. They struggled to understand that it won't be available until next week. What a world they are growing up in.

I really didn't find the stormtroopers completely incompetent. They took cover, even had Kanan pinned down until Zeb came from behind. Were the super effective? No. But the heroes did run from them.

I really like that Sabine's spray paint is an explosive.

The fact that badguys died (shot, blown out a hole through the hull, kicked to their death) shows that even though the show is aimed at a less jaded audience, they don't treat them as dumb.

The characterization of Hera and Ezra were really well done. Ezra's fighting with himself over doing what was right was excellent. Hera is definitely my favourite character so far. Sabine was bland, but I think, going by the scene of her sitting by herself,she might be a bit emotionally broken.

The Obi-wan warning was a nice touch, and very important to the mythology. I almost wonder if Kanan will die and Ezra will go bad. Perhaps Ezra is a villian that Luke will face in episode VII.

I really didn't find the stormtroopers completely incompetent. They took cover, even had Kanan pinned down until Zeb came from behind. Were the super effective? No. But the heroes did run from them.

I really like that Sabine's spray paint is an explosive.

The fact that badguys died (shot, blown out a hole through the hull, kicked to their death) shows that even though the show is aimed at a less jaded audience, they don't treat them as dumb.

The characterization of Hera and Ezra were really well done. Ezra's fighting with himself over doing what was right was excellent. Hera is definitely my favourite character so far. Sabine was bland, but I think, going by the scene of her sitting by herself,she might be a bit emotionally broken.

The Obi-wan warning was a nice touch, and very important to the mythology. I almost wonder if Kanan will die and Ezra will go bad. Perhaps Ezra is a villian that Luke will face in episode VII.

That would be cool, but Disney does not want the character that every kid watching their channel relates to, to become a bad guy. It would be like Luke becoming a villain.

I enjoyed it. My kids(ages 8, 6, 4) were on the edge of their seat the whole show, and begged for the next episode. They struggled to understand that it won't be available until next week. What a world they are growing up in.

You kids today with your new fangled DVD and Bit Torrents! BAH! Back in my day, if you missed an episode you were SCREWED until 6-9 weeks later when reruns came around! You had to plan out that week's viewing in a small magazine - and if you missed the rerun, then you were dead. Zero chance to see that episode EVER until syndication. . . . maybe.

Get_Off_My_Lawn_You_Damn_Kids.jpg

(Subtitle: Get off my lawn, you **** kids!)

I enjoyed it. My kids(ages 8, 6, 4) were on the edge of their seat the whole show, and begged for the next episode. They struggled to understand that it won't be available until next week. What a world they are growing up in.

You kids today with your new fangled DVD and Bit Torrents! BAH! Back in my day, if you missed an episode you were SCREWED until 6-9 weeks later when reruns came around! You had to plan out that week's viewing in a small magazine - and if you missed the rerun, then you were dead. Zero chance to see that episode EVER until syndication. . . . maybe.

Get_Off_My_Lawn_You_Damn_Kids.jpg

(Subtitle: Get off my lawn, you **** kids!)

In my day we had three television stations and due to inclimate weather often lost one! And waiting for syndication? We didn't even know that was a thing!

/shakes cane

I thought it was fantastic. Yeah, the Stormtroopers were a little overly incompetent, but the episode was great. I'm looking forward to the rest of the show.

There is a pic of Kessel in the EotE Core Rulebook, also. Page 359. It looks like a giant asteroid, very different than shown in the show.

There is a pic of Kessel in the EotE Core Rulebook, also. Page 359. It looks like a giant asteroid, very different than shown in the show.

That picture is from before Story group and legends rejiggered a lot. This is the new canon.

Perhaps Ezra is a villian that Luke will face in episode VII.

That would be cool, but Disney does not want the character that every kid watching their channel relates to, to become a bad guy. It would be like Luke becoming a villain.

Or like ... say... Anakin? :ph34r:

You kids today with your new fangled DVD and Bit Torrents! BAH! Back in my day, if you missed an episode you were SCREWED until 6-9 weeks later when reruns came around! You had to plan out that week's viewing in a small magazine - and if you missed the rerun, then you were dead. Zero chance to see that episode EVER until syndication. . . . maybe.

You got reruns in only a few weeks (6-9 is a few)?

In my day we had three television stations and due to inclimate weather often lost one! And waiting for syndication? We didn't even know that was a thing!

/shakes cane

Imagine begging to watch the Star Wars Christmas Special when it first came out. But dad wanted to watch something else in the era of no recording devices and one house TV. Something that would have been awesome to my young self was complete crap when I finally got a chance to see it decades later.

Imagine begging to watch the Star Wars Christmas Special when it first came out. But dad wanted to watch something else in the era of no recording devices and one house TV. Something that would have been awesome to my young self was complete crap when I finally got a chance to see it decades later.

Trust me.

Perhaps Ezra is a villian that Luke will face in episode VII.

That would be cool, but Disney does not want the character that every kid watching their channel relates to, to become a bad guy. It would be like Luke becoming a villain.

Or like ... say... Anakin? :ph34r:

Not exactly, Anakin started as the villain and we watched him be a good guy later. The movies also weren't as explicitly aimed at younger kids.