In Which I might Scream about...

 

Rebels.

Star Wars: Rebels.

Not a whole lot of people know about it. It's a four season TV show made originally for the Disney Channel. Most people who've heard of it think it's kiddish, boring, or cheesy.

Originally, I thought so too. My first encounter of this show was on Youtube, watching a "Funniest Animated Star Wars moments" compilation, or something like that. My first reaction was, "What the heck."

I mean, when my first look at this is these two:

there's at least a little grace, right? 

I mean, you grow to love them, eventually. But at the beginning, there's a bit of "Um, why?"

At least for me.

Anyways, I had no idea what I was watching, so I did what any responsible child should do (by child, I mean 13ish years old): I found my older sister and fellow Star Wars fanatic --at least at that time-- and asked her if she knew anything about it.

She only knew one scene.

And that scene almost made me completely run full speed away from Rebels.

Yes, that is Darth Vader riding on top of a TIE-Fighter, using the Force to make his cape blow majestically, because they are underground.

ANYWAYS.

You're probably thinking, "are you trying to convince me to not watch Rebels?"

No. No, I'm not.

I just want you to know what you'd be getting into, because the first few episodes of the first season are definitely NOT the gritty, gorgeous animation, a bit less kiddish Star Wars series. Especially with the Ahsoka series coming out, people might be thinking some of the Rebels characters are really grown up and fancy and sophistacated.

Not quite.

I definitely suggest watching Rebels before the Ahsoka series, since it looks like Ahsoka is a live action Rebels season 5. WHICH I AM PUMPED ABOUT.

Anyways again.

I wanted to talk now about why I do love Rebels.

A good portion of my family has watched it, and at least two have not been enamored, especially by some of the leading characters. So I want to reiterate, the first season is a little rough and young feeling, especially at the start. The first maybe four episodes are really just getting the story warmed up, introducing the characters' personalities, etcetera. There isn't a whole lot telling who the characters used to be before it started. And yes, Chopper is a bit of an acquired taste. If you were to say he's not for you, you would probably be my dad's new favorite person. 

But what I really love about Rebels, character wise, is the villains. There is a good amount of the nameless Stormtroopers and random officers, but most episodes follow Agent Kallus, Lieutenant Liste, Admiral Konstantine, Governor Pryce, Grand Admiral Thrawn, or one of the Inquisitors. The thing that kept confusing me in Clone Wars and occasionally in Bad Batch is that there are so many different villains. Often times, one random chap shows up, hops around being stupid in one episode, dies, and life moves on, la-di-da-di-da. But Rebels has a cast of good, smart villains, who are better than the rebel crew, so it's fun to watch them trying to outsmart each other. 

While not all of the bad guys are super smart --i.e. Konstantine and Liste-- they make it so there actually ARE stakes. And you get to watch them learn from their mistakes, prove why they got to be top of the class, and keep trying. I like that. I feel like a good bit of other Star Wars media has villains who just show up, throw a blaster around, and die, not really doing anything important or memorable. OR they show up already knowing EXACTLY how to defeat the heroes, and to me that's just a no-no. I like watching journeys, even villain journeys.

Enough about the villains, though. While Kallus does have those impeccable sideburns that just make his character so much better for some reason, the overall animation can look a little "hmmm" at times. The first time I watched it, I was a little uncertain about how I felt about how much the characters gesture and just plain wiggle. Eventually, it just faded into the animation style, and I grew to appreciate that it is actually very pretty. 

Don't get me started on season 4, that one is just ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh gorgeous and I love the story and the characters and someone stop me before I spoil everything....

But there are plenty of shots and scenes in the first three seasons that made me jump up and start screaming about how pretty they are. I do that a lot. No judgement, please. 

season 1

season 2

season 3

season 4

I took those as screenshots watching the show for the first time. Yeah, I think it's plenty pretty.

Anyways x3, moving away from visuals and villains, I want to talk just briefly about the heroes and the plot of the show. I know, I've probably been dragging on for a while; bear with me.

The heroes (Kanan, Hera, Zeb, Sabine, Ezra, and Chopper) have one of my favorite dynamics. They struggle to become a team, to fully trust each other, to learn how to change, to become something they think they're not, some of them tend to feud half the time... it feels realistic. So many times they just happen to be ready to let everyone do what they do best and not worry about how they got there. Clone Wars does that a little, including the movie, where you can see Anakin and Ahsoka figuring out what their roles are, but most of the other stuff is just implied. 

Don't get me wrong, it's implied very well, and I don't feel like anything's lacking, but I do enjoy getting to see the dynamic starting. I think that's really what season 1 is, getting the characters to their familial point and then using the later seasons to really explain why it was a struggle to get there.

Several people have said they think the characters are a bit flat. I can understand that. In the first season, and a little in the second, they do seem that way. But it's a four season series, with season four as the big culmination of all the arcs. Ezra and Kanan fully step into their roles as Jedi. Sabine becomes the leader she always was dancing away from. Hera and Zeb embrace their parts of the rebellion as a whole and stop trying to run away from the past. Chopper... is Chopper. Each character has a detailed story, and if it was tried to be crammed all into say the first two seasons, it would be too much and the last two seasons would be boring.

The series itself can seem to have several filler episodes, which are very annoying, but something from each of the "filler" episodes comes back, usually in the finale, to be something really important.

For example, in the season 1 finale, the crew realizes they need a TIE-Fighter, but they just blew them all up. Then Zeb and Ezra reveal that a TIE they stole in a filler episode is still around. It's little things like that that really hold the show together.

Alright, so I've been yammering on for a while. I'll stop now.

I highly suggest Rebels to any Star Wars fans who haven't seen it yet, and I especially suggest watching it BEFORE you watch Ahsoka, or at least refreshing your memory.

If you're part of that gang who's already watched and loved the series, thank you for bearing with me through all this insanity, and I hope I didn't completely waste your time. 

I hope y'all enjoyed my opinion of Star Wars: Rebels. Thank you for reading this far, and I hope you have a great Saturday!