3 hours ago, RogueCorona said:

Wait they are saying that the Empire was at some point debating between the Death Star project and a superior TIE model? I love the TIE Defenders but how could anyone convince the Imperial leadership to choose them over a planet killer? Not to mention the fact the Stardust project has been in the works since long before the Defender sabotage.

It depends on what your goals are. If you want to conquer and hold a world, TIE Defenders are more useful.

If you get off on terror and mass murder, you need a planet-killer.

A large part of the empires reason that they lost the war, if I recall correctly was that they frequently underestimated the role a Star Fighter could have. They often neglected their fighter quality for quantity and actively underestimated the threat of those X-wings that brought down the death star.

The empires mentality wasn't to conquer worlds; they pretty much had the entire galaxy eating out of their palm baring the minor resistance. Rather; they wanted a weapon that could shake the hearts of any would be dissenters forever. After all, resistance was futile if the empire could simply blow up any worlds it considered lost, Tarkin's plan was basically to make any and all resistance useless with an effectively invincible station. Indeed, if the battle of Yavin had failed for the alliance the war may well have ended right there and then. That terror would have done more for the "war" then any starfighter could have done, just if they had taken starfighter security more serious during the battle of yavin; there would have been no battle of Yavin.

It was just my theory based on the trailers and the information at the time. Considering the huge investment required by Stardust it is feasible that there would be little tolerance for setbacks for R&D efforts and if projects did not produce immediate results they would be terminated; prematurely.

So, from a certain point of view, the Empire did decide Stardust over the Tie-Defender. IMO, not an as easy decision at it may appear. But I am buyest towards air/space superiority.

Rebels just had a light cruiser commanded by an officer with several failures in his past launch a pair of TIE Defenders, so the Defender project hasn’t been cancelled yet. I guess the next episode will show whether or not the Rebels can spike the program or not.

In other news, Kanan appears to have picked up a few expansions to his Far Sight power this season.

From I09:

Quote

Last week, I asked Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni about the things he’s most excited to reveal in the fourth and final season. Usually, when you ask a creator questions that could result in specific, potentially spoiler-filled answers, they won’t reveal anything. But, after some internal debating, Filoni did answer, and gave three expected, but welcome, responses.

First was the Jedi question. “I will say just explaining Ezra’s past and what happens to him and Kanan is a big one,” Filoni said. “Because people have been all over that, seeing as they don’t see many force wielders in A New Hope .”

Second: the Thrawn question. “We brought Thrawn into the picture, so we have to answer questions about him,” Filoni added.

And third, the Ahsoka question. “And I would say, just because it’s been a constant question that I’ve gotten, people keep wondering what happens to a character like Ahsoka,” he said.

“I would say that all of these things are on the table this season, because you try to answer all those things in the course of the series,” Filoni continued. “So we tried to really bring all those answers to bear, whether people would like the answer or not, because it’s got to be contained within this story. So all those things were on the table going into this season.”

Looks like some answers (or answers-ish) are a-comin'!

I've been burned before by writers of series that claimed answers would arrive and by the end only more questions and confusion arose.

I shall remain skeptic but hopeful Filoni delivers.

I'm okay if Thrawn's fate is never revealed on Rebels.

seen the 2 first episodes of season 4. I like the explanation on Mandalorian Armor.

26 minutes ago, Forresto said:

I'm okay if Thrawn's fate is never revealed on Rebels.

I wonder if they're gonna pull a Saw and introduce Thrawn into live action.

Not sure about live action, but Zahn's got a new Thrawn novel in the pipeline, which will supposedly include Vader. Don't think I've seen anything about when it's supposed to be set.

On the other hand, we are getting Rukh in this, the final season of the show. It would be logical to tie up the story of an antagonist whose only screen appearances have been that same show as it reaches its conclusion.

Honestly, I don't think I'd be surprised either way - if they loosely adapt his fate from Legends by the end of the series, or leave him out there to pop up elsewhere.

So, which Rebels characters will survive?

Looks like at least one will: the latest "Forces of Destiny" is set just after E6, and has Han forced to compare his ship to another.

I can only assume these Forces of Destiny vignettes aren't playing mix-and-match with timelines. Since this is a spoiler thread...

...looks like Hera survives.

1 hour ago, whafrog said:

...looks like Hera survives.

And Chop!

So - time for a Nerd Fight! Which is the superior ship: Falcon or Ghost?

Now, I'm not saying most iconic - the Falcon would win that fight hands down. But the superior ship? I'm going to go with the one where I don't have bits falling off and/or have to get out and push upon liftoff.

BTW, here's the cartoon in question:

Hera's survival was basically confirmed in Rogue One anyway wasn't it? And Chop.

16 minutes ago, Tom Cruise said:

Hera's survival was basically confirmed in Rogue One anyway wasn't it? And Chop.

Yeah but this Forces of Destiny episode confirms they both survive past the Battle of Endor.

Captain Rex also survives since he is in Endor

4 hours ago, MonCal said:

Captain Rex also survives since he is in Endor

Rex is on Endor? Where is that mentioned?

The Ghost is a superior ship, just the Falcon is really good when it is deciding to behave (e.g. Not very often)

Apparently the guy with the white beard is supposed to be Rex. Someone said (in the forum) that the "SW lore dudes" confirmed it.

Regarding the Ghost - Falcon thing, well, it depends what you want your ship for.

My impression is that the Ghost has no cargo capacity whatsoever, but its cabins are spacious. it also requires more crew than the Falcon. For smuggling things I would take the Falcon. Less conspicuous than the ghost. For plain combat, I dunno, both have merits and drawbacks, but the Ghost seems more durable and less manoeuverable.

The Falcon has three droid brains. enough said

16 minutes ago, MonCal said:

Apparently the guy with the white beard is supposed to be Rex. Someone said (in the forum) that the "SW lore dudes" confirmed it.

They didn't really confirm it so much as agree that it'd be a nice idea.

Judging by this concept art though, it's likely to get confirmed before the season is over.

I love how mystic Rebels makes the Force. Just a few touches, like the animals and the fade to white, and it feels so magical.

13 hours ago, Tom Cruise said:

Hera's survival was basically confirmed in Rogue One anyway wasn't it? And Chop.

13 hours ago, GroggyGolem said:

Yeah but this Forces of Destiny episode confirms they both survive past the Battle of Endor.

10 hours ago, MonCal said:

Captain Rex also survives since he is in Endor

6 hours ago, Andreievitch said:

Rex is on Endor? Where is that mentioned?

5 hours ago, MonCal said:

Apparently the guy with the white beard is supposed to be Rex. Someone said (in the forum) that the "SW lore dudes" confirmed it.

Yep. The white bearded guy who dresses up as a scout trooper while and crew first infiltrate the bunker, is indeed Rex. And yes, Hera and Chopper also survived Rebels .

I don’t think that “guy on Endor is Rex” is actually Officially For Sure Canon(TM). ISTR seeing stuff from Filoni, Hidalgo, Chee, or someone, saying the production staff noticed the resemblance, talked about it, but they haven’t declared it canon (yet?).

I found a story about it: https://screenrant.com/star-wars-rebels-rex-isnt-officially-in-return-of-the-jedi-yet/

1 hour ago, coyote6 said:

I don’t think that “guy on Endor is Rex” is actually Officially For Sure Canon(TM). ISTR seeing stuff from Filoni, Hidalgo, Chee, or someone, saying the production staff noticed the resemblance, talked about it, but they haven’t declared it canon (yet?).

I found a story about it: https://screenrant.com/star-wars-rebels-rex-isnt-officially-in-return-of-the-jedi-yet/

At Celebration Orlando, I believe Filoni said that it’s Rex as far as he’s concerned, but you’re also right that it hasn’t been “officially” (whatever that means) been adopted into canon.