Honestly I can't see trying to say which is better when one ran 6 seasons and one is just about to start it's second. Dave Filoni was one of the main creators of "The Clone Wars" and is currently doing "Rebels". While I will say that "The Clone Wars" was an amazing show that bridged a lot of stories, filled gaps, and gave character to the cookie cutter clones we see in the movies "Rebels" will do it's share. To be honest "Rebels" is just the continuation of the Star Wars animated story line. If you have watched the trailer for season 2 you know some of the characters that will be showing up in that season. I know a lot about what to expect in season 2 of "Rebels" and I can't wait. There are little things that will be in season 2 that only diehard "The Clone Wars" fans will get. Bottom line is that Disney has done an amazing job between movies, animated, novelization, and comic formats to make a canon story line with as few issues as possible. These 2 series are just parts of a greater puzzle. You really can't say one of these are better than the other without watching and reading all the current canon material. Because there are things in the other formats that tell more about these series than you would know just watching them.

"A New Dawn"

"Tarkin"

"Dark Disciple"

Read all 3 and you'll find that there is a lot that ties both series into what is basically 1 animated series with a movie that fell between them.

So far I have read A New Dawn. I need to get to it.

I haven't watched rebels yet (hoping to soon), but I do love the clone wars, and own the entire series on blu-ray.

From what I've seen of rebels, I don't think I will like it quite as much for a few reasons

1) Cheaper animation budget (clone wars actually lost money I believe, but that's how lucas rolled, he wanted quality over profits)

2) Less epic, as at least in season one it's mostly all on one planet I hear, and you're always focusing on the core group who's basically together I believe.

3) A bit more "kiddie" from what I hear as well, although clone wars could certainly be at times too.

I hear ya on point number 2 but it helps when you realize they aren't coordinated and are trying to do their best without sticking their heads too far into oncoming enemy fire. There's a lot they can do against the Empire on that planet, so why not start there.

Well since Rebels doesn't have Jar Jar Binks that makes it 1,000 times better than the best movie of the prequels.

Then again the Star Wars Holiday Special didn't have Jar Jar Binks and somehow that movie became 1,000,000 times worse than a movie made only out of Jar Jar Binks scenes.

Say what you want about Jar Jar but at least his character was meant to be an idiot.

Mace Windu on the other hand... that character should just not exist.

Someone's been watching Red Letter Media have they? Well it would have been better if they picked a different actor, maybe Morgan Freeman to focus on the whole wise jedi which isn't all members of the Jedi council are supposed to be. I mean we all knew he would die but I will admit never has a main supposed to be bad-ass character went out like a chump since Star Trek Generations.

Rebels seems more like stereotypical disney, attempting to be star wars. I think TCW was created to be a part of Star Wars, by its own means. What I saw of rebels, which wasn't a whole lot.. didn't strike me as being as good as it could have.

It does what Disney can do. It is heavily censored while it does show deaths these are all cut out to the starfighter scene which you can't see the pilot who obviously dies, well dies. It is much like Dragon Ball Kai where it censors and cuts out din-dins death scenes. I would say Rebels is probably the most violent Disney cartoon since Gargoyles.

It's not so much the Red Letter Media thing (though I appreciate the humor from that series of videos other than the constant cursing). It's more that Mace Windu's entire existence is either a giant plot hole or they really want the Jedi to look stupid. Dude is the angriest Jedi ever, how is he on their council, making decisions and all that?

There was a fair bit of torture, you can't think anyone near an explosion survives, they hit troopers in vital areas with blasters yet in one episode there were claims from the villains that they don't have casualties. Yeah right.

Honestly I can't see trying to say which is better when one ran 6 seasons and one is just about to start it's second.

This. I do think Rebels has the potential to be better than Clone Wars, but it's just too early to be sure.

I am enjoying Rebels more than I did most of Clone Wars though.

Clone Wars is more elaborated (and extensive), but I like Rebels more because of the timeline.

Both shows are for children. They don't make any shows for the audience that grew up. Makes sense, they appeal to kids because they want to sell toys.

Both shows are for children. They don't make any shows for the audience that grew up. Makes sense, they appeal to kids because they want to sell toys.

Not much different from the OT. If it ain't broke...

Rebels. It's WEG Star Wars roots are not so much showing as being screamed out from the rooftops. It's almost a love letter to the old D6 game.

Both shows are for children. They don't make any shows for the audience that grew up. Makes sense, they appeal to kids because they want to sell toys.

I would say Rebels currently. I'm one of the few, if not the only person, who preferred the early seasons of the Clone Wars to the later ones because I feel the early seasons of the show did a much better job of focusing on the series' namesake conflict then the later ones. Sure seasons one and two had the occasional side story but IMO the side stories started running rampant after the season three premiere and while season six appeared to be toning down on them somewhat it didn't fix my second biggest complaint about the latter half of The Clone Wars series. Namely the lack of episodes focusing on space battles rather then just using them as a means to separate characters for a little while or to arrange meetings between groups of characters.

Rebels actually has more space combat then I expected from its early period because I figured if the staff couldn't manage to give us a decent amount of space combat with a series set during the biggest war in a thousand years there was virtually no chance of them doing so with a series set when the rebellion consists of a handful of guerrilla cells.

After two attempts I couldn't make it through more than half of TCW's first season. Haven't tried Rebels because of that experience.

I like how people are complaining that the shows are made for kids forgetting if you watch the OT again closely you will see they were all made with kids in mind. Star Wars has always targeted children, always will. So aside from some of the crazier EU books that slipped through remember if the shows seem targeted at children they are.

Both shows are for children. They don't make any shows for the audience that grew up. Makes sense, they appeal to kids because they want to sell toys.

You do realize Star Wars was always targeted at a younger audience and that those on this forum play with toys based on Star Wars? Just a reality check.

True, but 70s & 80s kids movies were much more adult than 2000+ kiddie sensibilities. I mean, Goonies was made for a young audience in the 80s, but if it were made today it would be totally neutered.

Markcsoul mentioned how Rebels is less Epic than Clone Wars, which I agree with, but at the same time it's a lot more personal because it focuses on a single group of characters. As the series grows I think this could be it's real strength, but that depends on how they develop the crew of the Ghost and their antagonists. Where the Clone Wars works was how different people would become more engaged with certain characters, which allowed it to resonate with a wider audience. My favorite stuff was all the bounty hunters and the Clone Troopers, but I didn't really care about all the jedi/sith stuff that much, but plenty other viewers probably felt the opposite. Rebels wont have really have that, there's one group of characters and one main arc that you may love or hate.

After two attempts I couldn't make it through more than half of TCW's first season. Haven't tried Rebels because of that experience.

Skip to season 2, maybe even 3.

I have only seen clips of "The Clone Wars". I binged on "Rebels" when I couldn't sleep several nights ago. My opinion is that the show has more style than substance, and that the show hasn't found that balance yet for being enjoyable for both children and adults. I believe that adding another character into the mix, when the show is 22 minutes long, might have a long-term negative effect on the character development and arcs of the other characters.

On a trivial note, am I the only one who thought the A-Wings were anachronistic to this time period? From reading the blurb from FFG, and reading the history of these fighters at Wookiepedia, I had come to view the fighters as a post-Battle of Yavin development. Now, with their appearance in "Rebels", they are demonstrably older than the Battle of Yavin. Wow. (Looking at the preview for the next season, I have to rethink what I know about the B-Wings, too.) Personally, I would have liked to see X-Wings in the "Siege of Lothal".

Is the paint job on the "Rebels" fighters the same as the one on the prototype fighters from FFG? It seemed to be so to me.

I have only seen clips of "The Clone Wars". I binged on "Rebels" when I couldn't sleep several nights ago. My opinion is that the show has more style than substance, and that the show hasn't found that balance yet for being enjoyable for both children and adults. I believe that adding another character into the mix, when the show is 22 minutes long, might have a long-term negative effect on the character development and arcs of the other characters.

On a trivial note, am I the only one who thought the A-Wings were anachronistic to this time period? From reading the blurb from FFG, and reading the history of these fighters at Wookiepedia, I had come to view the fighters as a post-Battle of Yavin development. Now, with their appearance in "Rebels", they are demonstrably older than the Battle of Yavin. Wow. (Looking at the preview for the next season, I have to rethink what I know about the B-Wings, too.) Personally, I would have liked to see X-Wings in the "Siege of Lothal".

Is the paint job on the "Rebels" fighters the same as the one on the prototype fighters from FFG? It seemed to be so to me.

The A-Wing showed up in Rebel Assault, the X-Wing DOS games and even in Droids. The problem is people writing the stuff generally do so in a vacuum - see the ship for the first time at Endor and automatically assumed that it was only built after Hoth.

It takes a loooong time to develop fighters in the real world, and it makes more sense for a ragtag Rebel Alliance to re-fit and upgrade existing designs. The B-Wing is also (presumably) an upgrade of an existing design, the Tempest bomber which we also see in Rebels. The X-Wing in fact was the only fighter that was genuinely all theirs thanks to Incom - but even then it's an upgraded Z-95. The TIE Advanced is also shown to be just one in a long line of developments.

Rebels does its homework, referencing Ralph MacQ's stuff and also EU. Remember, the EU is still there unless contradicted by the new canon - and the creators of the series have access to Wookieepedia just like us and you can bet your ass some of them play X-Wing. Hopefully we won't see crap like the T-Wing or the D-Wing in the "in-between" movies.

As for the topic, Rebels is pretty good. A little bit kiddy, but it is a cartoon for kids and nowhere near as bad as what happened to Droids (nobody could be killed, all blasters could not look like guns). The Clone Wars (later seasons) features a huge amount of death, including innocent characters and children. People have it back to front when they says that nothing in the 1980s would be shown onscreen - I grew up watching those series and man were they lame. Robotech was the rare exception, being adapted from Japanese anime (and taking away the blood and gore and booby scenes).

As a kids' series, Rebels is excellent, and there is a lot of subtlety they will also miss. Ezra is particularly interesting because he seems to be based on a Palestinian, echoing ongoing issues. Characters have flaws and complexities. Firefly* it is not, but it is Star Wars and it is good.

Like Clone Wars, the best reason to watch Rebels is that it makes the movies better, and it's setting the scene for Rogue One.

*In case you were wondering where my username comes from

crazier EU books that slipped through

Mace Windu's Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness will always hold a special place in my heart.

Both shows are for children. They don't make any shows for the audience that grew up. Makes sense, they appeal to kids because they want to sell toys.

Not much different from the OT. If it ain't broke...

Okay, yeah I enjoyed the hell out of them when I was a kid, but they are entertaining for anyone. Those movies won Oscars. The abortions called the special editions are not Oscar winning movies, those are the ones for children. Actually I'm not sure they are for anyone.

*specifically:

Star Wars (1977) won the Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration

• George Lucas digitally altered the sets and color palette of scenes.

Star Wars (1977) won the Oscar for Best Costume Design

• George Lucas reshoots used different costumes or CGI

Star Wars (1977) won the Oscar for Best Sound

• George Lucas altered the sound effects in scenes and added new ones

Star Wars (1977) won the Oscar for Best Film Editing

• George Lucas added and altered scenes that changed the pacing of the film, and our perceptions of the characters

Star Wars (1977) won the Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects

• George Lucas replaced the award winning practical special effects with CGI that looked dated in 1997

Star Wars (1977) won the Oscar for Best Music, Original Score

• George Lucas changed the music and altered sound effects that drown out the score. Compare the Death Star scenes for the worst offenses.

George Lucas was nominate for but did not win Best Director or Best Screenplay. Which is good because it would have been fraudulent for him to take credit for those.

The gall of the man to say this:

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition]."

Yeah well some nice guys already saved Star Wars. And with the internet, those restored versions will last forever.

I might be in the minority, but I started watching Rebels first with my son. He was 9, but is now 10. We listened to the audio books together for the prequel and Tarkin. Loved them. We both like Rebels. I think the show took a while to hit it's stride and will only get better in time.

We saw the preview for Season 2 and never watched TCW, so we have gone back to watch them. Thank the Force someone listed that chronological order list! If I had to watch the show in order it came out, I would be utterly frustrated (and a special thanks to those on here that showed me that list). I think that a lot of people are probably comparing the last few seasons of TCW to Rebels and that's unfair. We are only into Season 4 and I can see that TCW takes a while to really hit it's stride, too.

My only concern is that I haven't finished TCW yet. Do we start watching Rebels Season 2 before then?

Oh, and having watched the original Dexter's Laboratory Clone Wars cartoon, I'd say that they made Grevious weaker in TCW cartoon.

Clone wars had some really bad episodes and some good ones...but at least 50% of the episodes were pretty terrible.

Rebels has had no "terrible" episodes yet and has had some really great ones.

Rebels wins.

I don't like "Rebels" at all.

I don't like the idea of a bunch of Jedi running around in between RotS and the original SW film, wielding lightsabers. I don't like the gimmicky weapons and vehicles. I don't like the fact that all of these new characters are complete ciphers with cookie-cutter personalities. I don't like having the entire first season of a 'space show' set on ONE planet. And I don't like having snippets of John Williams' scores being used as incidental music for these nobodies. (The "Han and Leia" theme, for instance, belongs to Han and Leia. Not to an encounter with some random droids at a marketplace on Lothal.)

On the other hand, I ADORE both Clone Wars series.

The characterization was fantastic, the writing was top-notch, there was a ton of originality, the music was great, and both shows really served to enhance the prequels. ("Rebels," to me, seems like a stain on the OT.)

Not sure where you are getting a "bunch of Jedi". There is one former padawan who is trying to teach a new padawan. Not like there is a lot of them.

You say cookie cutter characters, but I see the beginning of characters with depth. I've read the prequel to Rebels and read the Kannan comic and he's pretty interesting. I don't see him as being cookie cutter. I don't see Hera as being cookie cutter. The big guy can be pretty cookie cutter, as can the orphan. I think you are judging it too harshly.

When I first started with Clone Wars, there are some exact cookie cutter situations going on there. The thing is, they improved as the show went on. Maybe you should go back and re-watch Season 1 of TCW again?

As for one planet, there were a few episodes they didn't state what planet they were on. The one with the Imperial training school was unknown. They had adventures in random space, but they didn't go to another planet. They were a local cell, though. Local....as in...around one spot?

Still, you seem to have made up your mind and anything I say won't matter.

I am enjoying Rebels more than I did most of Clone Wars though.

I agree. TCW was fun to watch but I never looked forward to it. Rebels I do, because while TCW was a good show and had good stories, it never felt like Star Wars to me, at least not like Rebels does.

I have watched Rebels, and the "good guys" act like straight up terrorists.

There is one episode where it is seriously egregious. The kid and the big alien are trying to buy some fruit, but the last box of the fruit was sold to the empire.

Now here we have the Empire legitimately purchasing goods from a merchant. The local garrison probably frequently makes purchases to supplement rations, which is a boon to the economy.

Now Ezra, a career criminal, decides he wants to steal some fruit from the soldiers, despite his companion telling him it creates risk needlessly. Danger and excitement, does a Jedi crave these things?

What follows after the theft is a series of incidents that leaves many enlisted men dead, the local market wrecked, and their customer base permanently damaged.

Every Storm Trooper has a mother somewhere in the galaxy. There are going to be dozens of mothers that will get a visit from an Imperial officer at her door, telling her that her son has died on some backwater outer rim planet that they believed to be peaceful. Because of a run in with criminals that murdered her son, just because they wanted the special fruit and didn't want to wait a day for another shipment.

How many dark side points has Ezra built up by the end of Season 1?

I'm just going to blame it on bad writing. Making the Imperials looks like Looney Toons villains acting comically evil in some scenes. Maybe the Imperials are aggressive towards the locals because of all the thefts and insurgent activity. In the very first episode, the Jedi's terrorist cell plants an explosive to murder a soldier so they can steal the soldier's supplies to sell for money on the black market. Who the hell knows where any weapons they steal from the imperials ends up? Probably in the hands of more criminals.

You know if the locals are being harassed by some middling Imperial officers, there is most definitely an avenue for them to make official complaints. Any activity that jeopardizes or undermines Imperial rule would proably be taken very seriously. I'll bet the quarter master would be extremely angry if he found out some of the Imperials on his base were harassing the merchants he buys supplies from.

All this, and Sabine was shot in the ******* face with a blaster bolt that knocked her off her feet, and she didn't even have a scar or burn. Maybe the beskar she wore was made of Mandalorian Iron, but the bolt hit her in the visor.

She should have screamed disturbingly and lost an eye in that encounter with Darth Vader. At least then the show would feel like there was some kind of consequence or gravity in these situations. It would let the audience know how dangerous Darth Vader was since they weren't able to escape unscathed, just like Luke in Empire Strikes Back.

They could even get some serious themes going such as dealing with the disfigurement of some one you were romantically fond of. But no, today's children are coddled and pussified.

So I don't take the show very seriously, that's the only way to enjoy it. It is shallow entertainment.

The one aspect that I liked, as an amateur historian, was when it was shown that there were repercussions for the actions of this Lothal cell. For their actions, the Empire destroyed Tarkintown and relocated the inhabitants to slave camps.

Resistance groups often invited reprisal from the entities they were fighting. I do not believe it is "evil" what the empire did. It is in the nature of war for both sides to act "evil". The question becomes, how far do you take it? Is there a line you won't cross?

The fact that the Empire even has slave labor camps shows it has long since crossed the line between justified use of force in a conflict and evil IMO. And of course later the Death Star only reinforces the point. I don't have a problem with the Empire's troops shooting back when they are attacked but the Empire doesn't stop there. If a government on Earth torched a village because it was suspected some of the people in the village were supporting a guerrilla movement and word got out the government would be condemned for its crimes so why shouldn't the empire?

There is no such thing as a completely clean war but you can try to minimize the number of innocents injured by your efforts. However the Empire doesn't care how many innocent bystanders it kills as long as it gets whatever it was aiming at.

And as for someone talking about how long it takes to develop fighters now it takes years but during the World Wars it only took months.