STAR WARS: REBELS Discussion Thread!

By KCDodger, in X-Wing

They specifically call it a bomber in the episode though. And the Episode gallery says they "make their getaway in a TIE bomber".

So maybe the early Bombers had a bombardier/gunner seat that was replaced by enhanced sensors. (Hint hint FFG). Or the bomber always had that extra seat and we just didn't know. Who knows, bombers could have had several variants we didn't know about.

Bomber with crew AND ordnance? :)

Well, there are some interesting things to be found in the trivia gallery for the last episode.

http://www.starwars.com/tv-shows/star-wars-rebels/the-antilles-extraction-trivia-gallery

That siad, I've found something that's a bit disappointing. According to this, Biggs was originally going to be the target for extraction, but his backstory doesn't fit into this moment in Rebel's timeline, so they chose Wedge. Okay, that's fine.

The disappointing part comes from two other slides from the linked gallery, where they mention that the flight instructor was originally going to be Valen Rudor, as opposed to Soontir Fel, who is supposed to be Biggs' flight instructor, and then they mention Baron Fel as merely 'a character from the comics and novels'.

Tell me I'm gasping at straws, here! Surely, they're not going to bring back Thrawn and the red stripped elite interceptors, but not Baron Fel and the 181st?!?

They specifically call it a bomber in the episode though. And the Episode gallery says they "make their getaway in a TIE bomber".

So maybe the early Bombers had a bombardier/gunner seat that was replaced by enhanced sensors. (Hint hint FFG). Or the bomber always had that extra seat and we just didn't know. Who knows, bombers could have had several variants we didn't know about.

I think people take the crew slot a bit too literally in this game. Clearly, there's a ton more room in many Star Wars ships than the number of crew slots allocated on the printed cards. The Lambda and Ghost can easily hold more than 2, and the YV-666 can hold far more than 3, and now we can see that the Bomber can fit more than just a pilot while carrying ordinance. What's important to note, though, is how functional or efficient those extra bodies are or can be.

The TIE/sf doesn't have a crew slot, but it clearly has an additional crew member functioning as the tail gunner and manning the gun represented by the rear arc. To me, crew slots aren't just representations of a ship being capable of holding additional people, but having the capability to put those people to good use within a space dogfight.

Sabine's Masterpiece is the only ship that seems to imply that someone huddled in those small TIE cockpits is contributing in any meaningful way.

Tell me I'm gasping at straws, here! Surely, they're not going to bring back Thrawn and the red stripped elite interceptors, but not Baron Fel and the 181st?!?

There are a lot of new characters this season. I'm not sure that they can introduce Soontir and do him justice while also develop Thrawn (for the non-initiated), follow the crew of the Ghost, show Kallus' evolution, have Governor Pryce, new Fulcrum, etc.

Now, if they were to do a series based on X-Wing battles (and less Jedi/Sith), a bit like that guy who made that awesome anime X-Wing battle on youtube... now that would be a neat platform for Soontir!

Actually, now I would be very excited to have a series that focuses more on space battles!

Tell me I'm gasping at straws, here! Surely, they're not going to bring back Thrawn and the red stripped elite interceptors, but not Baron Fel and the 181st?!?

There are a lot of new characters this season. I'm not sure that they can introduce Soontir and do him justice while also develop Thrawn (for the non-initiated), follow the crew of the Ghost, show Kallus' evolution, have Governor Pryce, new Fulcrum, etc.

Now, if they were to do a series based on X-Wing battles (and less Jedi/Sith), a bit like that guy who made that awesome anime X-Wing battle on youtube... now that would be a neat platform for Soontir!

Actually, now I would be very excited to have a series that focuses more on space battles!

That does sound phenomenal! I was really hoping that's what Rebels would turn into, but of course, they have to focus on the two jedis (and Asohka, who swears she's not one) who seem out of place considering the timeframe. Phoenix Squadron is such cannon fodder, it's painful to watch!

Also, Disney absolutely should have hired that animator, then turned that into a bada** episodic dogfight show!

Edited by Arttemis

Yeah something to remeber when bringing in Legends characters and things is that even if they really want to (they were already talking about bringing Thrawn in back in Season 1), they have to make sure it serves the story and isnt' there just for the sake of it.

They specifically call it a bomber in the episode though. And the Episode gallery says they "make their getaway in a TIE bomber".

So maybe the early Bombers had a bombardier/gunner seat that was replaced by enhanced sensors. (Hint hint FFG). Or the bomber always had that extra seat and we just didn't know. Who knows, bombers could have had several variants we didn't know about.

I think people take the crew slot a bit too literally in this game. Clearly, there's a ton more room in many Star Wars ships than the number of crew slots allocated on the printed cards. The Lambda and Ghost can easily hold more than 2, and the YV-666 can hold far more than 3, and now we can see that the Bomber can fit more than just a pilot while carrying ordinance. What's important to note, though, is how functional or efficient those extra bodies are or can be.

The TIE/sf doesn't have a crew slot, but it clearly has an additional crew member functioning as the tail gunner and manning the gun represented by the rear arc. To me, crew slots aren't just representations of a ship being capable of holding additional people, but having the capability to put those people to good use within a space dogfight.

Sabine's Masterpiece is the only ship that seems to imply that someone huddled in those small TIE cockpits is contributing in any meaningful way.

;)

Tell me I'm gasping at straws, here! Surely, they're not going to bring back Thrawn and the red stripped elite interceptors, but not Baron Fel and the 181st?!?

There are a lot of new characters this season. I'm not sure that they can introduce Soontir and do him justice while also develop Thrawn (for the non-initiated), follow the crew of the Ghost, show Kallus' evolution, have Governor Pryce, new Fulcrum, etc.

Now, if they were to do a series based on X-Wing battles (and less Jedi/Sith), a bit like that guy who made that awesome anime X-Wing battle on youtube... now that would be a neat platform for Soontir!

Actually, now I would be very excited to have a series that focuses more on space battles!

That does sound phenomenal! I was really hoping that's what Rebels would turn into, but of course, they have to focus on the two jedis (and Asohka, who swears she's not one) who seem out of place considering the timeframe. Phoenix Squadron is such cannon fodder, it's painful to watch!

Also, Disney absolutely should have hired that animator, then turned that into a bada** episodic dogfight show!

"Many Bothans died to bring us that information."

"Where they part of Phoenix Squadron?"

"... yes."

"Huh... must be a Saturday."

They specifically call it a bomber in the episode though. And the Episode gallery says they "make their getaway in a TIE bomber".

So maybe the early Bombers had a bombardier/gunner seat that was replaced by enhanced sensors. (Hint hint FFG). Or the bomber always had that extra seat and we just didn't know. Who knows, bombers could have had several variants we didn't know about.
I think people take the crew slot a bit too literally in this game. Clearly, there's a ton more room in many Star Wars ships than the number of crew slots allocated on the printed cards. The Lambda and Ghost can easily hold more than 2, and the YV-666 can hold far more than 3, and now we can see that the Bomber can fit more than just a pilot while carrying ordinance. What's important to note, though, is how functional or efficient those extra bodies are or can be. The TIE/sf doesn't have a crew slot, but it clearly has an additional crew member functioning as the tail gunner and manning the gun represented by the rear arc. To me, crew slots aren't just representations of a ship being capable of holding additional people, but having the capability to put those people to good use within a space dogfight. Sabine's Masterpiece is the only ship that seems to imply that someone huddled in those small TIE cockpits is contributing in any meaningful way.
I agree, and we saw Hobbie at a comms/sensor console, trying to get in touch with the Rebels, while Sabile was just running back and forth. ;)

I don't really care about the bomber getting a crew slot as much as I was wanting a system slot on there!

Well, there are some interesting things to be found in the trivia gallery for the last episode.

http://www.starwars.com/tv-shows/star-wars-rebels/the-antilles-extraction-trivia-gallery

That siad, I've found something that's a bit disappointing. According to this, Biggs was originally going to be the target for extraction, but his backstory doesn't fit into this moment in Rebel's timeline, so they chose Wedge. Okay, that's fine.

The disappointing part comes from two other slides from the linked gallery, where they mention that the flight instructor was originally going to be Valen Rudor, as opposed to Soontir Fel, who is supposed to be Biggs' flight instructor, and then they mention Baron Fel as merely 'a character from the comics and novels'.

Tell me I'm gasping at straws, here! Surely, they're not going to bring back Thrawn and the red stripped elite interceptors, but not Baron Fel and the 181st?!?

Yeah, I kinda feel like this was Fel's chance to make it into the show. They literally go to an Imperial Advanced Flight school and they create a new character to play the part of "Flight Instructor Fel". So if they didn't put him in at this point, don't count on him getting in. Sorry.

I just considered something, that I think if kept in mind makes a few of the problems for the rebels in ... Rebels ... seem less serious.

While the show is called "Rebels", the story told in it is about a specific team within a specific cell within the greater rebellion. I think it is important to remember that the Ghost's crew does not comprise the entirety of the Phoenix cell's operations, nor do we see all of their operations.

In the last episode we saw five or so rebel pilots die along with their ships and a transport. Then we saw the Ghost's crew make up for 2 (trained) pilots all on their lonesome. One cell fixed about 30% of the damage done in that failed run. We didn't see who recruited the first five pilots in the first place, nor did we see who gave the cell a GR-75.

tumblr_o395ungM6U1uf0h9xo1_500.jpg

Our POV is focused on the crew of the Ghost and their missions, but there is an entire base and carrier's worth of rebel mechanics, pilots, coordinators, support staff, droids, and troops that I'm willing to bet hard credits don't spend their days waiting for the chance to be background extras in one of the Ghost's missions, and that's just the Phoenix cell. We don't even know the magnitude of the greater galaxy-wide Rebellion. (Which as Hera has stated, is very much the point.)

jake-murray-innerpeaceisoverrated-jakemu

Personally, I blame the mental perspective narrowing on the EU-changing stuff.

The decanonization of the EU might have made people a little more timid when it comes to assuming that the galaxy spins on without us. In the olden days, if you wrote a fiction that didn't conflict with the main canon and didn't drastically twist the universe, it could have been assumed to have happened. Heck, it wasn't very hard to get the real canon approval as long as you were halfway sane with where you went. When Disney made the EU into Legends, it made what was for many people a more-or-less shared universe into a solidly Disney-owned universe. And let's face it. When a fact or story is only "Legends" it just feels less real than "Canon".

Now that Disney has made it clear that a thing is only real if it's Disney-made, it very cleanly separated "Real Starwars" from "How Starwars is in your head", when before the two were as close to touching as the creators could allow. Now, credit where credit is due; the producers for Rebels and much of the other media pay tons of homage to the EU, and I'm sure with their enthusiasm and the fact that the Mouse is in this for the long run that one day the new Canon will gain enough mass to become self-sustaining. It's just not up to EU levels quite yet.

Of course this only matters if you really got into that aspect of Starwars. If it's no big deal to you, then don't sweat it. Casual flyers are just as legit as lore-jockeys.

Edited by OneKelvin

Rebels is generally not a 'slice of life' show, but there's always hope that some of the grunts in the rebellion will have their own episode, like Domino Squad back in the CWs.

And I never liked the EU all that much, such poor authors thinking SW was science fiction when it was clearly space opera with laser swords and wizards.

Edited by GrimmyV

Rebels is generally not a 'slice of life' show, but there's always hope that some of the grunts in the rebellion will have their own episode, like Domino Squad back in the CWs.

And I never liked the EU all that much, such poor authors thinking SW was science fiction when it was clearly space opera with laser swords and wizards.

It would be great to have that kind of episode but I don't think we will get that with Rebel's setup and focus. The Clone Wars was more about telling stories set during the war, with different focus characters and the like whereas Rebels is more the story of the Ghost crew. But I guess we could see a variation of it where one of the Ghost's crew was the main character but the episode also focused on the team of Rebels the character was leading or a part of.

Did anyone else notice that the A-wings escorting the transport at the start of the episode weren't pheonix? They were green squadron.

The leader had the standad blue Phoenix Squadron paintjob, the rest looked like this one:

SABINE.jpg

And this one was piloted by Sabine in the Concord Dawn episode, so most likely still Phoenix Squadron.

And Green Squadron's A-wings were red :P

I think the leader was the pheonix pilot who survived Concord Dawn, but either way when the Interceptors launched he directed the other fighters with the callsigns "green 2, green 4" etc, telling two of them to guard the ship while the others engaged.

They are clearly of Pheonix group, but we may have just seen the earliest appearance of Green Squadron, long before they got the nice red Awings.

Edited by Arterial Spray

Did anyone see the Thrawn clip? Theh are very much doing an awesome job with him.

In terms of the larger show I remember Dave Filoni in an interview before season one premiered, that the show was going to very much be focused on a specific group. For instance a group of patriots viewing the Revolutionary War from a barnhouse. Obviously this could have changed but I think it holds true to the ultimate vision.

From what I gather from the shows Phoenix Squadron is not the entire Rebellion. They are one cell but they appear to be the most successful and threatening cell as of now. Hence why the Imperial leadership has sent in their best to deal with them, but they still persist.

Weather Phoenix Squadron are the one's who set up the base on Yarvin or Dantooine is still to be seen.

Edited by Beatty

From what I gather from the shows Phoenix Squadron is not the entire Rebellion. They are one cell but they appear to be the most successful and threatening cell as of now. Hence why the Imperial leadership has sent in their best to deal with them, but they still persist.

Weather Phoenix Squadron are the one's who set up the base on Yarvin or Dantooine is still to be seen.

Well, the fact Y-Wings go to General Dodonna's Group, probably means that Phoenix are not on Yavin, at the very least... because they would have kept them, in that instance.

They specifically call it a bomber in the episode though. And the Episode gallery says they "make their getaway in a TIE bomber".

So maybe the early Bombers had a bombardier/gunner seat that was replaced by enhanced sensors. (Hint hint FFG). Or the bomber always had that extra seat and we just didn't know. Who knows, bombers could have had several variants we didn't know about.

I think people take the crew slot a bit too literally in this game. Clearly, there's a ton more room in many Star Wars ships than the number of crew slots allocated on the printed cards. The Lambda and Ghost can easily hold more than 2, and the YV-666 can hold far more than 3, and now we can see that the Bomber can fit more than just a pilot while carrying ordinance. What's important to note, though, is how functional or efficient those extra bodies are or can be.

The TIE/sf doesn't have a crew slot, but it clearly has an additional crew member functioning as the tail gunner and manning the gun represented by the rear arc. To me, crew slots aren't just representations of a ship being capable of holding additional people, but having the capability to put those people to good use within a space dogfight.

Sabine's Masterpiece is the only ship that seems to imply that someone huddled in those small TIE cockpits is contributing in any meaningful way.

Fully agree with this even as a proponent for the SF having a crew slot - the upgrade slots on a ship should be used to accentuate the role and theme of a ship, as compared to a direct one for one measure.

Of course Rebels DOES bring up some interesting things that can affect this game. Do TIEs need the target lock action innately now? Can we get an A-wing with a crew so we can put flight instructor in the a-wing trainer? Will the swx58 product turn out to be the season three Ghost and Phantom Mk. II?

Wow I missed a lot.

I don't think Sabine is a mary sue, but she is an underdeveloped character.

Wow I missed a lot.

I don't think Sabine is a mary sue, but she is an underdeveloped character.

Fun fact: "Mandalorian", when translated to Galactic Basic Standard, means literally "Mary Sue" or "Gary Stu", depending of the gender.

Wow I missed a lot.

I don't think Sabine is a mary sue, but she is an underdeveloped character.

Plus she literally says her clan taught her better. She's a Mandalorian so it makes sense that she's good at anything that involves fighting.

Yeah it is really nice to have a character that can do anything (piloting, gun fighting, acrobatics, hand to hand combat etc) in a show. As a writer, it always gives your heroes a way out of a bad situation. Does your hero have to fist fight a baddie? No problem, they are an expert. Does your hero have to win a dog fight against an enemy ace? No problem, you hero is an ace herself! Does your hero need to dodge a bunch of bad guys shooting at her? No problem, she is super in humanly acrobatic. So we are good! (Tongue in cheek, in case you didn't realize) I do feel like the writers use Sabine as a get out of jail free card, and then explain it away because "she's a Mandalorian" I like Sabine, but sometimes she is a bit much.