What specifically did you find wrong with the wookiees? They looked malnourished to me which makes sense considering they are slaves and probably malnourished.

I think I preferred the model they used in The Clone Wars series. But that's just me

I think I preferred the model they used in The Clone Wars series. But that's just me

That does not tell me what the issue is. Be specific.

The issue with the wookies is they seem to look more like a hunk of plastic (Lego Wookie) and less like a living creature. They seem very static.

^ What they said.

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:

Well I couldn't find wookies progression in concept from how they were first conceptualized (looking like Zeb) to how they came out to be what they are in the movies, but I did find a star destroyer. Its not a pic from the front though, but has the skinny neck.

http://www.worker-studio.com/uploads/1/7/6/1/17613657/star_wars-stardestroyer_ralph_mcquarrie_.png

It may blend in Force & Destiny too, depending on how far they take Kanan in the show and the if FFG can incorporate the Inquisitor.

Kanan went into full-on Jedi wrecking ball mode. I think it counts.

I think I read that Kanan was still a padawan when his master was killed in Order 66. That may not be correct, and I don't remember where I read it, but if so, he's probably on par with Obi Wan in "The Phantom Menace." He was probably ready for the trials, but not yet a Master. I guess we'll find out as the show progresses.

He was a 14 year-old Padawan according to A New Dawn. So, yeah, not super powerful. Probably about as strong as a FaD PC.

My favourite moment was what happened after the Stormtrooper asked the Agent, "First Jedi you've ever seen, sir?"

Hilarious!

My mostly spoiler-free review of Star Wars Rebels:

Starts Out Weak and Finishes Strong

Well, finished the first episode of the new Disney Star Wars series, Rebels. Overall a mixed bag as the show starts out a little weak, but finishes in a rousing and poignant ending.

The Good:

Vanessa Marshall/Hera: Solid voice acting, great character, and the moral center of the show.

Zeb: Great character… started off a little one dimensional, but by the end of the episode I really loved him.

Ezra: Our main character. I really thought I was going to hate him as he starts out as little more than a clone of

Aladdin. Taylor Gray really imbues the character with a depth that I was surprised by. Solid performance.

BIGGEST SURPRISE OF THE SHOW: Freddie Prinz Jr: He can actually act. I was shocked. When I heard he had been cast as former Jedi apprentice in hiding, Kannan, I was filled with dread. But Prinz manages to give the character a sense of melancholy, and sadness.

David Oyelowo: Steals the show, and thankfully creates a sense of danger in a show that starts out lacking any sense that the characters are at risk. Oyelowo is just great in the role.

Animation: Most of the animation is great, the environments are fantastic, and characters look good. A lot less detail and depth of image than the Clone Wars, but this show is really trying to emulate the flat look of the cinematography of A New Hope… but there are problems (more on that later)

The Bad:

The 1st Half of the Episode. This story is crafted from two scripts, and it really shows. The first half of the episode is all smart aleck back and forth between the leads. This would all be fine, but EVERY character talks like this… listening to the five primary characters, and their smart aleck droid gets old real fast. Pretty much all of the dialog is equally interchangeable between the heroes… and that’s a bad thing.

Thankfully the second half of the story dials back the snarkiness and instead focuses on story and character mixed with well timed doses of humor. The second half of the story is marvelous.

The Music: I know a lot of fans have celebrated the return of the standard John Williams music, but as they say sometimes “too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.” Kiner makes copious use of Williams themes, oftentimes with mixed results. Some scenes Kiner is allowed to shine, but other is feels like Kiner is just trying to stuff as much Williams in a scene as possible. At times it got so distracting I was taken out of the episode as my brain rifled through the old databank retrieving the moment a particular flourish appeared in the OT.

What’s incredibly frustrating is that Kiner is a great composer and wrote some incredibly memorable themes for Clone Wars. Why reign that in? Let Kiner loose and let him write new themes along with using hints of Williams score.

One moment completely took me out of the show…

The Dreadful:

Tiya Sircar: Awful. She simply can’t act. Her range kind of reminds me of the “Many expressions of Kristen Stewart meme.” Here’s Sabine’s concerned voice… here’s Sabine’s excited voice… here’s Sabine’s sad voice. Unfortunately they all sound the same. I guess that’s par for the course for a lot of Disney animated TV projects, but when the rest of the cast is bringing their “A” game it kind of makes Sircar’s deficiencies stand out. NOTE: I’m more than willing to give her a chance, and she could easily grow into the role, I just feel she’s the weak link right now.

Stormtroopers: Basically reduced to comedic bumblers. Gone are the days of the Stormtroopers being the Emperor’s shock troops. Flawed to be sure, but still a threat to our heroes. I never once felt anyone was in any serious danger with these Keystone Cops in pursuit, and that could wind up being a problem later on. While Kallus and the Inquisitor will certainly fill the role of dangerous villain, the Stormtroopers at least have to appear competent or there’s no sense of risk… makes for boring storytelling.

One scene in particular really just made me shake my head.

The Wookiee’s: Wow… what can I say… the visual design is positively laughable. They look like fudgsicles that were left out of the fridge for an hour and somebody plopped some eyes on them. The rest of the aliens in the show look fine (most look fairly close to their Clone Wars counterparts), but the Wookiees look like they were a design afterthought.

Overall Impression: A solid, but flawed start to the series. The first half of the episode is incredibly weak, but by the middle of the episode it picks up steam, culminating in a really solid finale. I’m cautiously optimistic.

Yancy

One of our heroes has been captured, and he begins making bold statements like “My uncle, the Emperor is really going to be angry when he hears about this.” Of course the Troopers take the bait, walk into the cell, hero escapes behind them and shuts the door behind them. The shot then lingers for a few seconds as the Troopers look at each other dumbfounded… yeah, that’s something I expect from Scooby-Doo, not necessarily Star Wars (unless we are talking Battle Droids)

That was enough scathing tirade to "kill" the stormtroopers, AKA putting them out of the fight. Plus he got a triumph allowing him to also slip out the door unnoticed.

My mostly spoiler-free review of Star Wars Rebels:

Starts Out Weak and Finishes Strong

Well, finished the first episode of the new Disney Star Wars series, Rebels. Overall a mixed bag as the show starts out a little weak, but finishes in a rousing and poignant ending.

The Good:

Vanessa Marshall/Hera: Solid voice acting, great character, and the moral center of the show.

Zeb: Great character… started off a little one dimensional, but by the end of the episode I really loved him.

Ezra: Our main character. I really thought I was going to hate him as he starts out as little more than a clone of

Aladdin. Taylor Gray really imbues the character with a depth that I was surprised by. Solid performance.

BIGGEST SURPRISE OF THE SHOW: Freddie Prinz Jr: He can actually act. I was shocked. When I heard he had been cast as former Jedi apprentice in hiding, Kannan, I was filled with dread. But Prinz manages to give the character a sense of melancholy, and sadness.

David Oyelowo: Steals the show, and thankfully creates a sense of danger in a show that starts out lacking any sense that the characters are at risk. Oyelowo is just great in the role.

Animation: Most of the animation is great, the environments are fantastic, and characters look good. A lot less detail and depth of image than the Clone Wars, but this show is really trying to emulate the flat look of the cinematography of A New Hope… but there are problems (more on that later)

The Bad:

The 1st Half of the Episode. This story is crafted from two scripts, and it really shows. The first half of the episode is all smart aleck back and forth between the leads. This would all be fine, but EVERY character talks like this… listening to the five primary characters, and their smart aleck droid gets old real fast. Pretty much all of the dialog is equally interchangeable between the heroes… and that’s a bad thing.

Thankfully the second half of the story dials back the snarkiness and instead focuses on story and character mixed with well timed doses of humor. The second half of the story is marvelous.

The Music: I know a lot of fans have celebrated the return of the standard John Williams music, but as they say sometimes “too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.” Kiner makes copious use of Williams themes, oftentimes with mixed results. Some scenes Kiner is allowed to shine, but other is feels like Kiner is just trying to stuff as much Williams in a scene as possible. At times it got so distracting I was taken out of the episode as my brain rifled through the old databank retrieving the moment a particular flourish appeared in the OT.

What’s incredibly frustrating is that Kiner is a great composer and wrote some incredibly memorable themes for Clone Wars. Why reign that in? Let Kiner loose and let him write new themes along with using hints of Williams score.

One moment completely took me out of the show…

At the end, the Wookiees are reunited, and underlying the whole scene is Han & Leia’s Love Theme from Empire Strikes Back??? What the heck does that have to do with a family being reunited? Let Kiner write something original for that.

The Dreadful:

Tiya Sircar: Awful. She simply can’t act. Her range kind of reminds me of the “Many expressions of Kristen Stewart meme.” Here’s Sabine’s concerned voice… here’s Sabine’s excited voice… here’s Sabine’s sad voice. Unfortunately they all sound the same. I guess that’s par for the course for a lot of Disney animated TV projects, but when the rest of the cast is bringing their “A” game it kind of makes Sircar’s deficiencies stand out. NOTE: I’m more than willing to give her a chance, and she could easily grow into the role, I just feel she’s the weak link right now.

Stormtroopers: Basically reduced to comedic bumblers. Gone are the days of the Stormtroopers being the Emperor’s shock troops. Flawed to be sure, but still a threat to our heroes. I never once felt anyone was in any serious danger with these Keystone Cops in pursuit, and that could wind up being a problem later on. While Kallus and the Inquisitor will certainly fill the role of dangerous villain, the Stormtroopers at least have to appear competent or there’s no sense of risk… makes for boring storytelling.

One scene in particular really just made me shake my head.

One of our heroes has been captured, and he begins making bold statements like “My uncle, the Emperor is really going to be angry when he hears about this.” Of course the Troopers take the bait, walk into the cell, hero escapes behind them and shuts the door behind them. The shot then lingers for a few seconds as the Troopers look at each other dumbfounded… yeah, that’s something I expect from Scooby-Doo, not necessarily Star Wars (unless we are talking Battle Droids)

The Wookiee’s: Wow… what can I say… the visual design is positively laughable. They look like fudgsicles that were left out of the fridge for an hour and somebody plopped some eyes on them. The rest of the aliens in the show look fine (most look fairly close to their Clone Wars counterparts), but the Wookiees look like they were a design afterthought.

Overall Impression: A solid, but flawed start to the series. The first half of the episode is incredibly weak, but by the middle of the episode it picks up steam, culminating in a really solid finale. I’m cautiously optimistic.

Yancy

Storm troopers ran from 1 guy in Episode 4. Stormtroopers fell for the Han pretending to be the scanning crew asking for help. Stormtroopers have not shown themselves to be very bright.

One thing that I thought was cool was Zeb's weapon is a ranged as well as melee weapon. Now how do we implement it in game?

I wonder if we'll see the "built-in blaster" attachment somewhere down the line.

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:

Design style + which star destroyer are these? These were shown going into an atmosphere whereas the movie versions never did (and in the EU can't generally go into an atmosphere, but older models that were smaller, like the Victory class could).

The main issues that I had were:

• A space transport getting onto the hanger deck of am Imperial Class Star Destroyer without anyone noticing.
• The crew making into orbit and landing on the Kessel Spice Mines
• The Kessel Spice Mines itself (isn't it supposed to be a barren asteroid type rock in space and not an actual planet?
• Wookiees...what's up with them?

• That hanger deck had just had a massive explosion go off in it, so it is possible that the ships sensors had blind spots to ships approaching/docking
• Yeah, you'd expect a place that had slaves digging up an illicit drug would have better defenses to avoid getting robbed
• In the EU it was a nearly airless rock of a world, but still had nearly normal gravity, so that would put it at the size of the Earth in terms of mass/radius. But that is the EU and the EU has been wiped out as far as the writers of these shows go.
• They were slaves in the rebellion era. Chewbacca was a freed wookie that owed a life debt to Han (don't think we ever get the back story to that incident).

The main issues that I had were:

• A space transport getting onto the hanger deck of am Imperial Class Star Destroyer without anyone noticing.
• The crew making into orbit and landing on the Kessel Spice Mines
• The Kessel Spice Mines itself (isn't it supposed to be a barren asteroid type rock in space and not an actual planet?
• Wookiees...what's up with them?

• That hanger deck had just had a massive explosion go off in it, so it is possible that the ships sensors had blind spots to ships approaching/docking
• Yeah, you'd expect a place that had slaves digging up an illicit drug would have better defenses to avoid getting robbed
• In the EU it was a nearly airless rock of a world, but still had nearly normal gravity, so that would put it at the size of the Earth in terms of mass/radius. But that is the EU and the EU has been wiped out as far as the writers of these shows go.
• They were slaves in the rebellion era. Chewbacca was a freed wookie that owed a life debt to Han (don't think we ever get the back story to that incident).

The Essential Guide to Warfare covers the beginning of the Han/Chewie Life Debt in its section on Han's career in the Imperial military (The Life Debt resulted from the incident which led to Han being dishonorably discharged)

My mostly spoiler-free review of Star Wars Rebels:

Starts Out Weak and Finishes Strong

Well, finished the first episode of the new Disney Star Wars series, Rebels. Overall a mixed bag as the show starts out a little weak, but finishes in a rousing and poignant ending.

The Good:

Vanessa Marshall/Hera: Solid voice acting, great character, and the moral center of the show.

Zeb: Great character… started off a little one dimensional, but by the end of the episode I really loved him.

Ezra: Our main character. I really thought I was going to hate him as he starts out as little more than a clone of

Aladdin. Taylor Gray really imbues the character with a depth that I was surprised by. Solid performance.

BIGGEST SURPRISE OF THE SHOW: Freddie Prinz Jr: He can actually act. I was shocked. When I heard he had been cast as former Jedi apprentice in hiding, Kannan, I was filled with dread. But Prinz manages to give the character a sense of melancholy, and sadness.

David Oyelowo: Steals the show, and thankfully creates a sense of danger in a show that starts out lacking any sense that the characters are at risk. Oyelowo is just great in the role.

Animation: Most of the animation is great, the environments are fantastic, and characters look good. A lot less detail and depth of image than the Clone Wars, but this show is really trying to emulate the flat look of the cinematography of A New Hope… but there are problems (more on that later)

The Bad:

The 1st Half of the Episode. This story is crafted from two scripts, and it really shows. The first half of the episode is all smart aleck back and forth between the leads. This would all be fine, but EVERY character talks like this… listening to the five primary characters, and their smart aleck droid gets old real fast. Pretty much all of the dialog is equally interchangeable between the heroes… and that’s a bad thing.

Thankfully the second half of the story dials back the snarkiness and instead focuses on story and character mixed with well timed doses of humor. The second half of the story is marvelous.

The Music: I know a lot of fans have celebrated the return of the standard John Williams music, but as they say sometimes “too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.” Kiner makes copious use of Williams themes, oftentimes with mixed results. Some scenes Kiner is allowed to shine, but other is feels like Kiner is just trying to stuff as much Williams in a scene as possible. At times it got so distracting I was taken out of the episode as my brain rifled through the old databank retrieving the moment a particular flourish appeared in the OT.

What’s incredibly frustrating is that Kiner is a great composer and wrote some incredibly memorable themes for Clone Wars. Why reign that in? Let Kiner loose and let him write new themes along with using hints of Williams score.

One moment completely took me out of the show…

At the end, the Wookiees are reunited, and underlying the whole scene is Han & Leia’s Love Theme from Empire Strikes Back??? What the heck does that have to do with a family being reunited? Let Kiner write something original for that.

The Dreadful:

Tiya Sircar: Awful. She simply can’t act. Her range kind of reminds me of the “Many expressions of Kristen Stewart meme.” Here’s Sabine’s concerned voice… here’s Sabine’s excited voice… here’s Sabine’s sad voice. Unfortunately they all sound the same. I guess that’s par for the course for a lot of Disney animated TV projects, but when the rest of the cast is bringing their “A” game it kind of makes Sircar’s deficiencies stand out. NOTE: I’m more than willing to give her a chance, and she could easily grow into the role, I just feel she’s the weak link right now.

Stormtroopers: Basically reduced to comedic bumblers. Gone are the days of the Stormtroopers being the Emperor’s shock troops. Flawed to be sure, but still a threat to our heroes. I never once felt anyone was in any serious danger with these Keystone Cops in pursuit, and that could wind up being a problem later on. While Kallus and the Inquisitor will certainly fill the role of dangerous villain, the Stormtroopers at least have to appear competent or there’s no sense of risk… makes for boring storytelling.

One scene in particular really just made me shake my head.

One of our heroes has been captured, and he begins making bold statements like “My uncle, the Emperor is really going to be angry when he hears about this.” Of course the Troopers take the bait, walk into the cell, hero escapes behind them and shuts the door behind them. The shot then lingers for a few seconds as the Troopers look at each other dumbfounded… yeah, that’s something I expect from Scooby-Doo, not necessarily Star Wars (unless we are talking Battle Droids)

The Wookiee’s: Wow… what can I say… the visual design is positively laughable. They look like fudgsicles that were left out of the fridge for an hour and somebody plopped some eyes on them. The rest of the aliens in the show look fine (most look fairly close to their Clone Wars counterparts), but the Wookiees look like they were a design afterthought.

Overall Impression: A solid, but flawed start to the series. The first half of the episode is incredibly weak, but by the middle of the episode it picks up steam, culminating in a really solid finale. I’m cautiously optimistic.

Yancy

Storm troopers ran from 1 guy in Episode 4. Stormtroopers fell for the Han pretending to be the scanning crew asking for help. Stormtroopers have not shown themselves to be very bright.

I would suggest you watch those two examples again, because you are missing some key facts:

1) When Han chases the Stormtroopers down the hall you fail to mention what initially happened. Han and company round the corner and catch a small group of Stormtroopers by surprise. Han quickly blasts one at pointblank range sending the troops scurrying likely out of surprise and the fact they have no clue how many rebels they are facing.

2) There would be no reason for the Stormtroopers to be suspicious of the scanning crew asking for assistence as the troops had just done a visual inspection of the Falcon and found nothing because Han and company were hiding in the secret compartments, plus the ship's escape pods had been jettisoned.

Also don't forget Stormtroopers quickly dispatched the trained crew of the Tantive IV, made fairly quick work of the Rebel Base on Hoth and were shown to rule over the galaxy through fear (according to the movies). The level of incompetence shown by the Troopers in Rebels (including the four shorts) makes it hard to believe anyone would be remotely afraid to stand up to them, or would face any real consequences if they did so simply because they are dunderheads. This creates a storytelling problem.

If you only rely on Kaluus or the Inquisitor to provide the threat of the week, the show will get old pretty fast. In addition if the point of the show is to grow new fans, and some of your main baddies in Episode VII allegedly wear variant Stormtrooper armor, this new audience wont take them very seriously as villains.

My mostly spoiler-free review of Star Wars Rebels:

Starts Out Weak and Finishes Strong

Well, finished the first episode of the new Disney Star Wars series, Rebels. Overall a mixed bag as the show starts out a little weak, but finishes in a rousing and poignant ending.

The Good:

Vanessa Marshall/Hera: Solid voice acting, great character, and the moral center of the show.

Zeb: Great character… started off a little one dimensional, but by the end of the episode I really loved him.

Ezra: Our main character. I really thought I was going to hate him as he starts out as little more than a clone of

Aladdin. Taylor Gray really imbues the character with a depth that I was surprised by. Solid performance.

BIGGEST SURPRISE OF THE SHOW: Freddie Prinz Jr: He can actually act. I was shocked. When I heard he had been cast as former Jedi apprentice in hiding, Kannan, I was filled with dread. But Prinz manages to give the character a sense of melancholy, and sadness.

David Oyelowo: Steals the show, and thankfully creates a sense of danger in a show that starts out lacking any sense that the characters are at risk. Oyelowo is just great in the role.

Animation: Most of the animation is great, the environments are fantastic, and characters look good. A lot less detail and depth of image than the Clone Wars, but this show is really trying to emulate the flat look of the cinematography of A New Hope… but there are problems (more on that later)

The Bad:

The 1st Half of the Episode. This story is crafted from two scripts, and it really shows. The first half of the episode is all smart aleck back and forth between the leads. This would all be fine, but EVERY character talks like this… listening to the five primary characters, and their smart aleck droid gets old real fast. Pretty much all of the dialog is equally interchangeable between the heroes… and that’s a bad thing.

Thankfully the second half of the story dials back the snarkiness and instead focuses on story and character mixed with well timed doses of humor. The second half of the story is marvelous.

The Music: I know a lot of fans have celebrated the return of the standard John Williams music, but as they say sometimes “too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.” Kiner makes copious use of Williams themes, oftentimes with mixed results. Some scenes Kiner is allowed to shine, but other is feels like Kiner is just trying to stuff as much Williams in a scene as possible. At times it got so distracting I was taken out of the episode as my brain rifled through the old databank retrieving the moment a particular flourish appeared in the OT.

What’s incredibly frustrating is that Kiner is a great composer and wrote some incredibly memorable themes for Clone Wars. Why reign that in? Let Kiner loose and let him write new themes along with using hints of Williams score.

One moment completely took me out of the show…

At the end, the Wookiees are reunited, and underlying the whole scene is Han & Leia’s Love Theme from Empire Strikes Back??? What the heck does that have to do with a family being reunited? Let Kiner write something original for that.

The Dreadful:

Tiya Sircar: Awful. She simply can’t act. Her range kind of reminds me of the “Many expressions of Kristen Stewart meme.” Here’s Sabine’s concerned voice… here’s Sabine’s excited voice… here’s Sabine’s sad voice. Unfortunately they all sound the same. I guess that’s par for the course for a lot of Disney animated TV projects, but when the rest of the cast is bringing their “A” game it kind of makes Sircar’s deficiencies stand out. NOTE: I’m more than willing to give her a chance, and she could easily grow into the role, I just feel she’s the weak link right now.

Stormtroopers: Basically reduced to comedic bumblers. Gone are the days of the Stormtroopers being the Emperor’s shock troops. Flawed to be sure, but still a threat to our heroes. I never once felt anyone was in any serious danger with these Keystone Cops in pursuit, and that could wind up being a problem later on. While Kallus and the Inquisitor will certainly fill the role of dangerous villain, the Stormtroopers at least have to appear competent or there’s no sense of risk… makes for boring storytelling.

One scene in particular really just made me shake my head.

One of our heroes has been captured, and he begins making bold statements like “My uncle, the Emperor is really going to be angry when he hears about this.” Of course the Troopers take the bait, walk into the cell, hero escapes behind them and shuts the door behind them. The shot then lingers for a few seconds as the Troopers look at each other dumbfounded… yeah, that’s something I expect from Scooby-Doo, not necessarily Star Wars (unless we are talking Battle Droids)

The Wookiee’s: Wow… what can I say… the visual design is positively laughable. They look like fudgsicles that were left out of the fridge for an hour and somebody plopped some eyes on them. The rest of the aliens in the show look fine (most look fairly close to their Clone Wars counterparts), but the Wookiees look like they were a design afterthought.

Overall Impression: A solid, but flawed start to the series. The first half of the episode is incredibly weak, but by the middle of the episode it picks up steam, culminating in a really solid finale. I’m cautiously optimistic.

Yancy

Storm troopers ran from 1 guy in Episode 4. Stormtroopers fell for the Han pretending to be the scanning crew asking for help. Stormtroopers have not shown themselves to be very bright.

I would suggest you watch those two examples again, because you are missing some key facts:

1) When Han chases the Stormtroopers down the hall you fail to mention what initially happened. Han and company round the corner and catch a small group of Stormtroopers by surprise. Han quickly blasts one at pointblank range sending the troops scurrying likely out of surprise and the fact they have no clue how many rebels they are facing.

2) There would be no reason for the Stormtroopers to be suspicious of the scanning crew asking for assistence as the troops had just done a visual inspection of the Falcon and found nothing because Han and company were hiding in the secret compartments, plus the ship's escape pods had been jettisoned.

Also don't forget Stormtroopers quickly dispatched the trained crew of the Tantive IV, made fairly quick work of the Rebel Base on Hoth and were shown to rule over the galaxy through fear (according to the movies). The level of incompetence shown by the Troopers in Rebels (including the four shorts) makes it hard to believe anyone would be remotely afraid to stand up to them, or would face any real consequences if they did so simply because they are dunderheads. This creates a storytelling problem.

If you only rely on Kaluus or the Inquisitor to provide the threat of the week, the show will get old pretty fast. In addition if the point of the show is to grow new fans, and some of your main baddies in Episode VII allegedly wear variant Stormtrooper armor, this new audience wont take them very seriously as villains.

Right. And the Stormtroopers weren't convinced by Ezra's stuff about the emperor. But him faking choking. They underestimated him. But that is a common imperial mistake. "Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances." Overconfidence. The flaw that makes them lose.

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

Anyone can watch it. Go to www.watchdisneyxd.com or download the Disney xd app on your mobile device. Then you register you cable or satellite provider and it becomes available to watch online.

>Anyone

>cable or satellite provider

C'mon, who pays for regular TV anymore? It's archaic.

I know what to you mean. But it is the best I can do is share the location. Requiring some service like cable is a complaint for Disney.

There are less than legal means to find the episode. It is on the World Wide Interwebs if you know where to look.

I appreciated Disney giving me the option to view the episode via the app, but by being "exclusive" it certainly creates an atmosphere where some will be compelled to piratical means to get their hands on it. They should have dropped the exclusivity and just premiere it on the network.

Yancy

Ok, so already being a huge and older fan of the Wars, I am totally biased. I loved The Clone Wars for what they were. Over all I give that series a strong B+.

So While there is some "writing and dialog" issues here, we have to remember who the targeted audience is. 7-10 old boys, and trying to bring girls into the mix as well.

Over all I really liked it. (I know I'm a stupid fanboy who loves all things Star Wars ), well except for a ton of the EU novels.

Small spoilers:

At first I thought it was Chewie and Lumpy, and was pretty excited to see Lumpy again after so long (1978). I was kind of bummed it wasn't Lumpy.

Spoilers are over now.

Is it really the Star Wars that I want to see? Not really. But I am happy I get see new Star Wars. Overall, not too bad for a first Episode. The look of the Wookiees were pretty bad. they should have used the ones from the Clone Wars.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty show. I give it a B- for now.

Small spoilers:

At first I thought it was Chewie and Lumpy, and was pretty excited to see Lumpy again after so long (1978). I was kind of bummed it wasn't Lumpy.

Spoilers are over now.

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.

I Agree about Chewbacca, I do kind of wish it was Lumpy, but oh well...

We do know that C-3P0 and R2-D2 show up in Rebels.

I think they could have done better with the Wookies also. Maybe they will fix them as time goes on or maybe they didn't spend the time on them because it can be tough trying to do the different variations and will do better with them for more prominent Wookies in the storyline.