Possible answers

1: The Empire doesn't know Kuat is building A-Wings for rebels

2 Kuat doesn't know that it is building A-Wings for rebels. They could be purchased by a rebel front company or by planetary defense forces then given to the rebels.

3: The Empire doesn't dare risk retaliating and driving Kuat into full scale rebellion. I'm sure Kuat turning against the Empire is high on the list of worst nightmare scenarios of many Imperial officers and officials.

Honestly I don't see why anyone is so shocked at the idea of a major corporation hedging its bets and making sure that in the unlikely event the rebels win they have a reason to not hate Kuat. In Legends there were several major shipwrights supplying ships to the Alliance under the table and others, including KDY, supplying ships to both sides of the Clone Wars. Why should the new canon be different?

You missed option 4

Some fool that has no clue just assigned one of the most well known ship yards name to it.

This just stinks of lazy canon making to me.

How hard would it be to put in a little effort to integrate the original canon with the new?

Just call it something other than the RZ-1

Possible answers

1: The Empire doesn't know Kuat is building A-Wings for rebels

2 Kuat doesn't know that it is building A-Wings for rebels. They could be purchased by a rebel front company or by planetary defense forces then given to the rebels.

3: The Empire doesn't dare risk retaliating and driving Kuat into full scale rebellion. I'm sure Kuat turning against the Empire is high on the list of worst nightmare scenarios of many Imperial officers and officials.

Honestly I don't see why anyone is so shocked at the idea of a major corporation hedging its bets and making sure that in the unlikely event the rebels win they have a reason to not hate Kuat. In Legends there were several major shipwrights supplying ships to the Alliance under the table and others, including KDY, supplying ships to both sides of the Clone Wars. Why should the new canon be different?

You missed option 4

Some fool that has no clue just assigned one of the most well known ship yards name to it.

This just stinks of lazy canon making to me.

How hard would it be to put in a little effort to integrate the original canon with the new?

Just call it something other than the RZ-1

"Rebels are cool. Kuat Systems Engineering sounds cool. So that must be the guys building the rebel fighters then."

It can also be that the shape for the awing has been simplified for the cartoon. Also star destroyers look different with those long "necks", and tie fighters have pylons that are different to the well known ones. The show uses an stylized and simplified art direction.

No, it's actually Ralph McQuarrie's style. It's not simplified at all.

Yup here goes Disney screwing around with the canon again....

You're funny.

Lucasfilm makes Star Wars. The Lucasfilm story group makes the big canon decisions. Disney just gives them money and takes their money. Similar relationship with Marvel. Some Disney exec isn't giving them mandates on changing where the A-Wing fits in the timeline.

I don't get it. Why do modern works have to conform to old forms of lesser canon (he works siting the RZ-1 as being post Yavin were pretty far down on the old canon list) especially when a new canon policy has been in effect for years at this point. The A-wing was chosen for Rebels because 1) it had a cool Mcquirre painting and 2) people familiar with the films would also know what they were and 3) saved on having to design yet another new 'old' ship for the rebels to fly. He last point is worth remarking because the production team does not have an unlimited time to crank out episodes, and any new ships risk backlash from uber nerds where old ships are established and accepted.

Could have been worse though. They could have been flying E-wings (didn't they already do that in the Yoda Chronicles?)

Possible answers

1: The Empire doesn't know Kuat is building A-Wings for rebels

2 Kuat doesn't know that it is building A-Wings for rebels. They could be purchased by a rebel front company or by planetary defense forces then given to the rebels.

3: The Empire doesn't dare risk retaliating and driving Kuat into full scale rebellion. I'm sure Kuat turning against the Empire is high on the list of worst nightmare scenarios of many Imperial officers and officials.

Honestly I don't see why anyone is so shocked at the idea of a major corporation hedging its bets and making sure that in the unlikely event the rebels win they have a reason to not hate Kuat. In Legends there were several major shipwrights supplying ships to the Alliance under the table and others, including KDY, supplying ships to both sides of the Clone Wars. Why should the new canon be different?

You missed option 4

Some fool that has no clue just assigned one of the most well known ship yards name to it.

This just stinks of lazy canon making to me.

How hard would it be to put in a little effort to integrate the original canon with the new?

Just call it something other than the RZ-1

I don't think so. They will probably come up with an explanation for this some day!

Meh...The kid posting this on the Rebels site made a mistake.

At least that's what I'm going with.

The kid posting this on the Rebels site made a mistake.

That's possible. But more likely they want this to be the RZ-1 A-Wing and everyone who has an issue with that will just have to deal with it.

LFL' Story Team decides what is or isn't canon, and have no need to stick to old canon unless it suits them to do so. There's nothing sacred about what was quite often, nothing more then glorified fanfic.

It's better this way than the old way.

The old way was conflicting with itself until eventually retconned to try to have semblance of continuity.

This way does not conflict with itself. If they keep the continuity working and consistent, then this ends up a much better way of doing things.

I have no problem with this, here's why:

Kuat Drive Yards is a company, likely for profit, and those rz-1 fighters are not sold to rebels directly, but to legitimate sources. *wink wink*. As long as the company stays in the black, they don't care. Profit over people. Not a philosophy I ascribe to, but common.

The idea of the rebels who can't even hold a permananf base designing entirely new ships seems pretty far fetched. Likely the rebels would spend needed resources on purchasing food, fuel, weapons and other necessities rather than spending money on research and development to put an untested fighter into combat situations.

The notion that every single person on screen had a super impactful and defining moment that changed the galaxy is lazy writing. The Galaxy is a very large place, the rag tag bunch of rebels aren't the only ones who ca do anything. Also, maybe the random dude on bespin really likes ice cream. It doesn't have to be a rebel secret holding computer core.

It is a cool looking ship, so why not use it, especially with the McQuarrie inspiration.

Hardcore eu dissecting fans are a small percentage of the fan base I'm sure. For every one that knows the naming practices of bothan families there are, and could probably be, 5 that just watch the movies and television shows, who see familiar Star Wars stuff. Even if you piss these fans off, the not hardcore fans will make you money.

Now if this issue really impacts your life to such a degree, you really should rethink said life. Because there are so many more things that are important. Like the fact that TIE fighters and the TIE advanced can fly sideways and backwards respectively now.

Like the fact that TIE fighters and the TIE advanced can fly sideways and backwards respectively now.

To be fair, the sidewards thing is just using repulsors, totally cool lorewise. And the backwards motion is litterally the k-turn.

Hardcore eu dissecting fans are a small percentage of the fan base I'm sure.

Of people that like Star Wars? Probably.

Of people who post on message boards for Star Wars starfighter miniatures games? I'm betting the overlap on that particular venn diagram is rather large.

I'm betting the overlap on that particular venn diagram is rather large.

You'd lose that bet. There's no doubt a greater % of people here who are really into the EU, but it's still not that large. A lot of people here had never even heard of the HWK-290 or E-Wing prior to FFG putting them into the game.

Yup here goes Disney screwing around with the canon again....

Change for the sake of change.

As long as they don't put in something absolutely and utterly unbelievable weird stuff like lightsaber crossguards or white solar panels on black Tie Fighters, everything is alright.

For gods sake this is so unthinkable that it will never happen.

Oooh, now I want ewok jedi. yub yubing mind tricks and light saber boomerangs.

I'm glad the A-wing on the show is really the A-wing.

I wonder if, with all the shuttles they use on Rebels, we'll see the Star Tours shuttle at some point.

Yyyyyeah....guys, you do recall that Kuat Systems Engineering was responsible for the Jedi Starfighters, right?

Is it so hard to believe that the company that made these during the Clone Wars...

...would evolve a simpler (less Jedi-requiring) design once the Jedi are gone, that looks like this?

Hardcore eu dissecting fans are a small percentage of the fan base I'm sure.

Of people that like Star Wars? Probably.

Of people who post on message boards for Star Wars starfighter miniatures games? I'm betting the overlap on that particular venn diagram is rather large.

I'm still pretty certain that those that nitpick such minor, minor details is still a really small portion of EU fans.

Hardcore eu dissecting fans are a small percentage of the fan base I'm sure.

Of people that like Star Wars? Probably.

Of people who post on message boards for Star Wars starfighter miniatures games? I'm betting the overlap on that particular venn diagram is rather large.

I'm still pretty certain that those that nitpick such minor, minor details is still a really small portion of EU fans.

I think those that nitpick such minor things are just having a hard time letting g and accepting the current nature of things.

I have no problem with this, here's why:

Kuat Drive Yards is a company, likely for profit, and those rz-1 fighters are not sold to rebels directly, but to legitimate sources. *wink wink*. As long as the company stays in the black, they don't care. Profit over people. Not a philosophy I ascribe to, but common.

The idea of the rebels who can't even hold a permananf base designing entirely new ships seems pretty far fetched. Likely the rebels would spend needed resources on purchasing food, fuel, weapons and other necessities rather than spending money on research and development to put an untested fighter into combat situations.

The notion that every single person on screen had a super impactful and defining moment that changed the galaxy is lazy writing. The Galaxy is a very large place, the rag tag bunch of rebels aren't the only ones who ca do anything. Also, maybe the random dude on bespin really likes ice cream. It doesn't have to be a rebel secret holding computer core.

It is a cool looking ship, so why not use it, especially with the McQuarrie inspiration.

Hardcore eu dissecting fans are a small percentage of the fan base I'm sure. For every one that knows the naming practices of bothan families there are, and could probably be, 5 that just watch the movies and television shows, who see familiar Star Wars stuff. Even if you piss these fans off, the not hardcore fans will make you money.

Now if this issue really impacts your life to such a degree, you really should rethink said life. Because there are so many more things that are important. Like the fact that TIE fighters and the TIE advanced can fly sideways and backwards respectively now.

Look at the American Civil War and the new concepts and designs which the Confederates managed to develop and build despite having a vastly inferior industrial base compared to their opponents. So what is so odd about the Alliance coming up with a few new ship designs again? Also we have no idea how many bases the Alliance had off screen or what they were doing. I don't mind the changes but the idea that a galaxy wide rebellion couldn't design and produce a few new ships and fighters is ludicrous IMO.

Star Wars canon: Everything is canon until something comes out that contradicts canon, and then the fans scurry to explain why it isn't a contraction and then that explanation is the new canon.

Repeat.

Is it possible to design a new ship? Sure. To my knowledge the confederates weren't running from a galaxy spanning empire, and part of a civilization that lets you buy and/or steal what you need faster than building it. I'm sure the powers that be in your civil war, if they could have got the things you mention from some other means for easier and cheaper they would have.

It isn't that the alliance couldn't have done so, it's partly that any background performer that had a second of screen time became a hugely important role in the Galaxy at large and was super connected to the rebellion or the heroes of the film. If the new canon divorces itself from that, I'm all for it. Part of the reason I don't like the prequels is that everything is so interconnected to a ridiculous degree that it comes of very contrived. Now I will be the first to say that the original trilogy is far from a good movie (plot and dialogue are very basic, but they are meant to be fun popcorn movies) but much of the lore from the eu (a lot from WEG) and prequels, the degrees of separation from the characters or rebellion gives Kevin Bacon a run for his money.

Remember tha Galaxy is big, and if you look at rebellions, warlords, and put in power governments on Earth on earth in our lifetime, most seem to get weapons from someone else, rather than make their own. I would concede that the rebels could have factories that produce knock off craft - think along the lines of the much copied and reproduced AK-47, as it is more beneficial to a mass produce weapons of war that exist than to design new ones - especially when you are on the losing side.

There is also the story reasons: setting up an elaborate heist to steal fighters, or broker a deal with a Hutt crime lord is far more dramatic than testing a new fighter in a wind tunnel (or whatever they do for space snub fighters). The movies are called Star Wars not Star Established Scientific Procedures.

why would Kuat drive yards build the thing? There the ones that make the Star destroyers, the TIE fighters, all the variants as well. The Empire has a very strict loyalty program as well. I doubt Kuat Drive yards can sell to both sides without someone getting force choked.

of course we are only 1 episode into the new season, so maybe this will be explained somehow.

Also, does this mean we can get a PS 2 "phoenix squadron" pilot for the A-wing?

It is almost as if Disney is rewriting cannon, bwahahaha!

Gotta Remember the Neb-B was also a Kuat Yards design and it is mainly a rebel used ship.

Is it possible to design a new ship? Sure. To my knowledge the confederates weren't running from a galaxy spanning empire, and part of a civilization that lets you buy and/or steal what you need faster than building it. I'm sure the powers that be in your civil war, if they could have got the things you mention from some other means for easier and cheaper they would have.

It isn't that the alliance couldn't have done so, it's partly that any background performer that had a second of screen time became a hugely important role in the Galaxy at large and was super connected to the rebellion or the heroes of the film. If the new canon divorces itself from that, I'm all for it. Part of the reason I don't like the prequels is that everything is so interconnected to a ridiculous degree that it comes of very contrived. Now I will be the first to say that the original trilogy is far from a good movie (plot and dialogue are very basic, but they are meant to be fun popcorn movies) but much of the lore from the eu (a lot from WEG) and prequels, the degrees of separation from the characters or rebellion gives Kevin Bacon a run for his money.

Remember tha Galaxy is big, and if you look at rebellions, warlords, and put in power governments on Earth on earth in our lifetime, most seem to get weapons from someone else, rather than make their own. I would concede that the rebels could have factories that produce knock off craft - think along the lines of the much copied and reproduced AK-47, as it is more beneficial to a mass produce weapons of war that exist than to design new ones - especially when you are on the losing side.

There is also the story reasons: setting up an elaborate heist to steal fighters, or broker a deal with a Hutt crime lord is far more dramatic than testing a new fighter in a wind tunnel (or whatever they do for space snub fighters). The movies are called Star Wars not Star Established Scientific Procedures.

The size of the galaxy makes it much, much easier for the Alliance to hide shipyards and fighter factories then it is for rebels on Earth though. And if a Earth rebel movement could hide a fighter factory, provide it with resources and get a design team to work for them do you really think they wouldn't try to create fighters specifically suited to their needs?

Gotta Remember the Neb-B was also a Kuat Yards design and it is mainly a rebel used ship.

That too though they were widely used by both sides even in the new canon I believe.

Hardcore eu dissecting fans are a small percentage of the fan base I'm sure.

Of people that like Star Wars? Probably.

Of people who post on message boards for Star Wars starfighter miniatures games? I'm betting the overlap on that particular venn diagram is rather large.

I'm still pretty certain that those that nitpick such minor, minor details is still a really small portion of EU fans.

As much as I'm pissed at Disney for getting rid of the EU, I'm not going to rage just because they decided to change the name of a ship, so I'd have to agree with you.

I'm not going to rage just because they decided to change the name of a ship, so I'd have to agree with you.

Technically, it's rage because the DIDN'T change the name of a ship. Despite it being slightly different.