It's around the corner, so why not have a thread?

Starting with this: the return of the clones

http://www.theforce.net/story/front/The_Clones_Return_in_Star_Wars_Rebels_Season_2_165894.asp

I have particularly high hopes for season two of Rebels. I will confess, early on in season one, my reaction to most of it was pretty "meh, but it's Star Wars, so maybe it will get better?" especially after the consistent level of awesome from the clone wars, both artistically and in terms of story telling. I mean, really, there was even a decent Jar Jar arc, and my brain can't believe it spit those words out in that order. Now, there were several little moments of brilliance early on, but for me the series really kinda "kicked in" about the time they try and rescue Luminara.

Then I watched "Siege of Lothal." Other than the minor quibble that in my mind those A-Wings show up a few years too early, the show was finally firing on all cylinders. All the right notes were hit, the pacing was good, and I feel like the investment in the earlier episodes paid off. Without waltzing into spoiler territory, but simply stopping at a scenic overlook near spoiler territory, I am dying to find out what a "certain someone" has been doing since the last time we saw them, and then they can explain WHY IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND PURE DID THEY LIE! *sobbing* Ok, I'm better now.

Less than a month, I am very excited.

I really should sit down and watch what I've DVR'd ..... but knowing me ...... I'll likely wait till the DVD release to binge watch it. Though the opening episode for season 2 was good. I liked the use of Vader and I look forward to seeing a new inquisitor.

I have to say (as I've done before in threads about the subject), I never liked clone wars (still forced myself to watch all of it, because people kept insisting it got better in the later seasons).
I didn't really like Rebels much either.

But the difference for me between Rebels and TCW is that for some reason, I still want to keep watching Rebels.

Even though the (IMHO) show is infantile in its storytelling and abusing a bunch of tropes that I hate (biggest of which is the Role Reprisal abuse, which I really loathe), for some reason I am actually interested in what will happen to the crew.

That's a sign that at least the show might be better than TCW, in my eyes.
Of course, if they keep piling on characters from TCW, that might just dilute that feeling for me, since I didn't care about those characters back then and I certainly don't care about them now.

I'm excited about. Going to try and make it to the Rebels panel at NYCC in a few weeks.

Loved most of season one, although the budget cuts after the Clone Wars really showed, and the Siege of Lothal has got to be one of my favourite things Star Wars to have come out since the Mortis arc.

I loved Seige of Lothal. I hate the Mortis arc with a passion though and feel it is a perfect example of what went wrong with the PT, latter TCW, and late EU. Too much focus on the Jedi and the Force and not enough on the rest of the story.

Well, to be fair, that is what that arc was about. That is basically like criticizing the sky for being blue...

In fact, I liked that they finally brought back some of the mysticisme of the force in those episodes.

Looking forward to it. Personally, I liked the beginning of Rebels more than the beginning of TCW, and since for me TCW became better over time, I hope the same happens with Rebels. Although to be fair, a lot comes from the general setting; fighting the Empire just ticks more boxes for me than fighting Separatists. Stormtroopers > Droids, I guess ...

The trailer looks good. Yes, it is a kids' show, but I do not really mind as long as it is fun. And it is nice as it really feels like an EotE/AoR/FaD group.

...it really feels like an EotE/AoR/FaD group.

This.

That was the first thing I thought. This is an Edge group, and the GM just bought Age.

I didn’t care for the Mortis arc, or the arc where Yoda went to that weird planet.

IMO, one of the places where this Universe tends to get lost is when they try to get too deep into The Force and what’s behind it, etc….

For me, Rebels has clearly been aimed towards a younger audience, but my main complaint is that each episode is too short! The Siege of Lothal episode was awesome, and I really look forward to what happens in the next season.

I didn’t care for the Mortis arc, or the arc where Yoda went to that weird planet.

IMO, one of the places where this Universe tends to get lost is when they try to get too deep into The Force and what’s behind it, etc….

Heh, that's what I liked about it. I felt they did a good job of clarifying some things, wiping away some of the inane speculation in the EU, while at the same time preserving the mystery and suggesting even greater depth.

Not to mention, I was good to see Yoda have character development, make mistakes, succumb to hubris, etc. He's always been on a pedestal, and I thought they did a great job of pulling him off it and making him earn his way back.

Not to mention, I was good to see Yoda have character development, make mistakes, succumb to hubris, etc. He's always been on a pedestal, and I thought they did a great job of pulling him off it and making him earn his way back.

Those parts about Yoda himself were good, what I didn’t like was the other entities on that planet and how they were portrayed. It was like they were Force fairies who appeared as flying Tragedy and Comedy masks, and that just totally destroyed any ability I might have had to enjoy the episode.

If you’re going to do that, you might as well have Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, and Gollum dance around his head, and be done with it.

The trailer looks good. Yes, it is a kids' show, but I do not really mind as long as it is fun. And it is nice as it really feels like an EotE/AoR/FaD group.

Fully agreed.

I think that if Rebels was the only thing Star Wars coming out for the forseeable future, I'd be upset.

But since we're getting some "adult" stuff (I HOPE!), I'm fine with some kid stuff that older people can still watch.

Sure, I'll still cringe at the childish plots and actions of the crew at times and moan loudly every time they pull a fan-favor and introduce someone from the original movies (or the prequels or TCW), but in the end, I can still watch it.

I didn’t care for the Mortis arc, or the arc where Yoda went to that weird planet.

IMO, one of the places where this Universe tends to get lost is when they try to get too deep into The Force and what’s behind it, etc….

Heh, that's what I liked about it. I felt they did a good job of clarifying some things, wiping away some of the inane speculation in the EU, while at the same time preserving the mystery and suggesting even greater depth.

Not to mention, I was good to see Yoda have character development, make mistakes, succumb to hubris, etc. He's always been on a pedestal, and I thought they did a great job of pulling him off it and making him earn his way back.

I think the strength of the Clone wars series was there was a little bit of something for everyone. Like, if you couldn't guess from my avatar choice, the parts of Star Wars that get my blood pumping are the epic space battles. While I know deep in my heart of hearts waaaaaay too much about orbital mechanics to know a real space battle can never, ever look like that, seeing the little fighters bob and weave and aileron roll without ailerons in between GIANT battleships that hammer away at each other like the legendary titans of old just makes me go to my happy place. My sister, in contrast, loved any and everything to do with the clone troopers despite them having the one story arc I felt made me want to gouge my eyes out rather than finish, or solve by dialing 1-800-O-KENOBI on the old comlink about 12 minutes in to the first episode in the arc.

I also thought that it was interesting to see the Jedi with the perspective granted of both fore and hindsight, realizing despite their supposed wisdom, at least at the time of the decline of their order, dogma and hubris was not something they were immune to, and the ability to diffuse their own destruction was right in front of them for years, but none of them could see it until it was too late.

Kids show it may be, and while I hunger for more complex, deep, and morally ambiguous stories where things aren't so black and white, I certainly see potential in Rebels, and it fills a nice gap while I wait impatiently for Episode VII and the movie that so clearly should have been about Wedge.

>.> <.< I'll be over there, playing with my model X-Wings and TIE fighters now.

fighting the Empire just ticks more boxes for me than fighting Separatists. Stormtroopers > Droids

It didn't help that the droids were constantly used as this comic relief. I loathed that **** for the prequels and TCW. When your main bad guys are just a running gag of ineptitude it really detracts from the levity of what your protagonists are doing. Seriously, you want a sidekick to be comic relief; the bad guys should be intimidating. That's how you create drama, having the protagonists in tense situations against tough odds. The prequels and TCW really struggled to create that tension. We were constantly reminded about how incompetent the droid army was so it was never in doubt that our heroes would win.

It goes back to that saying about "coincidence is great for getting characters into trouble, but it's cheating if coincidence gets them out of trouble".

I didn’t care for the Mortis arc, or the arc where Yoda went to that weird planet.

IMO, one of the places where this Universe tends to get lost is when they try to get too deep into The Force and what’s behind it, etc….

Heh, that's what I liked about it. I felt they did a good job of clarifying some things, wiping away some of the inane speculation in the EU, while at the same time preserving the mystery and suggesting even greater depth.

Not to mention, I was good to see Yoda have character development, make mistakes, succumb to hubris, etc. He's always been on a pedestal, and I thought they did a great job of pulling him off it and making him earn his way back.

I think the strength of the Clone wars series was there was a little bit of something for everyone. Like, if you couldn't guess from my avatar choice, the parts of Star Wars that get my blood pumping are the epic space battles. While I know deep in my heart of hearts waaaaaay too much about orbital mechanics to know a real space battle can never, ever look like that, seeing the little fighters bob and weave and aileron roll without ailerons in between GIANT battleships that hammer away at each other like the legendary titans of old just makes me go to my happy place. My sister, in contrast, loved any and everything to do with the clone troopers despite them having the one story arc I felt made me want to gouge my eyes out rather than finish, or solve by dialing 1-800-O-KENOBI on the old comlink about 12 minutes in to the first episode in the arc.

I also thought that it was interesting to see the Jedi with the perspective granted of both fore and hindsight, realizing despite their supposed wisdom, at least at the time of the decline of their order, dogma and hubris was not something they were immune to, and the ability to diffuse their own destruction was right in front of them for years, but none of them could see it until it was too late.

Kids show it may be, and while I hunger for more complex, deep, and morally ambiguous stories where things aren't so black and white, I certainly see potential in Rebels, and it fills a nice gap while I wait impatiently for Episode VII and the movie that so clearly should have been about Wedge.

>.> <.< I'll be over there, playing with my model X-Wings and TIE fighters now.

That was another thing I disliked about the later seasons of the Clone Wars the shortage of epic space battles compared to the early seasons where you got at least one space battle focused episode per season episodes where the space battle was the climax of the story were much rarer in later seasons.

fighting the Empire just ticks more boxes for me than fighting Separatists. Stormtroopers > Droids

It didn't help that the droids were constantly used as this comic relief. I loathed that **** for the prequels and TCW. When your main bad guys are just a running gag of ineptitude it really detracts from the levity of what your protagonists are doing. Seriously, you want a sidekick to be comic relief; the bad guys should be intimidating. That's how you create drama, having the protagonists in tense situations against tough odds. The prequels and TCW really struggled to create that tension. We were constantly reminded about how incompetent the droid army was so it was never in doubt that our heroes would win.

It goes back to that saying about "coincidence is great for getting characters into trouble, but it's cheating if coincidence gets them out of trouble".

Darth Sidious was setting up the Seperatists to be the fall guy. And it was easy for him to get the weasels to cheap out on things left and right...

There is also the fact that, while the individuals droids were less competent then a clone trooper, they were able to be produced much more quickly and relied on mass wave attacks to overwhelm the line.

Quantity has a quality all its own.

But yes, I agree that in many cases the droid army was so completely inept and bungling, it didn't seem to matter how many there were - a single Jedi would able to Mary Sue their way through them.

Darth Sidious was setting up the Seperatists to be the fall guy. And it was easy for him to get the weasels to cheap out on things left and right...

Also this.

I liked the Rebels show and I am definitely waiting for season 2.

What I didn't like was TCW, I gave it up half through season 2 or 3 (yes, I can't remember even that from the show), I don't know why I disliked it, I just did. I might be able to force myself to watch it again since now we have the correct order to watch the episodes.